Cigarette Industry More Than Damaging To Lungs

September 27, 2017 – Jenny Mayer, a previous contributor of interesting content to 21st Century Tech Blog, has tackled cigarettes and smoking in this latest infographic. She writes:

“We all know that smoking is harmful to the human body, but there is actually a second damaging side to smoking and cigarettes. Both cigarette smoke itself and the waste from cigarettes can have a major impact on the environment.”

So how much damage is tobacco and smoking doing to more than just human lungs? I think you will find the statistics on discarded cigarette butts pretty appalling.

The arrival of Jenny’s infographic coincides with my visit to my rheumatologist to get a cortisone injection in my knee. To get there I walked the 1.2 kilometers to the subway with cane in hand. But as I walked it was impossible not to notice the refuse of cigarettes everywhere. I shared my observations with Jenny in an email. 

This is what I saw and obsessively counted thinking I might write about this very subject:

• over 500 cigarette butts discarded on the sidewalks between my apartment and the subway.
• 12 smokers seen on the street during my walk, all of them crossed in front of building entrances with receptacles to discard butts visible but only partially filled.