Tobacco Product Waste

The tobacco industry sells products that are harmful to the health of our loved ones. Their products when used as intended, kill and cause disease. 1 The truth is their products are not only harming the health of our loved ones, but they are also putting us at risk of the exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke. Secondhand smoke (breathing someone else’s smoke) causes thousands of Californian deaths each year. 2 However, that is not all the tobacco industry is doing. In fact, they are the top global plastic polluter (a type of thirdhand smoke) whose production and manufacturing directly contributes to climate change and deforestation. 2, 3 The ingredients in the tobacco products have toxic chemicals which classify them as “toxic waste” which makes it difficult to dispose in a safe manner. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

(See this wonderful video about this, Tobacco and the Environment, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Y_lVE9xLQ )

Cigarette butts are the number one littered item on Earth. 10 They can be seen on park floors, beaches, outside our homes, and rivers. In fact, the tobacco industry produces about 6 trillion cigarettes each year. 11 The filters in the cigarette butts are made of 15,000 strands of microplastic fibers. 12 Microplastic end up not only in the environment but in our body as well. Cigarette butts can take a decade to decompose. 13 And since there is more and more accumulating in the environment they end up in our food, 14 air, 15 and water. 16

The new emerging tobacco products are not any better. The vape products have the same effect as the cigarette butts. They cause plastic pollution and chemical leaks in the environment. 17 In reality, these electronic devices are contributing to electronic waste, 18 which is difficult and expensive to dispose of. 19

It is time we act and hold the tobacco industry accountable for all the harm they are causing to our environment and loved ones. [Might close with something like, join our next Coalition meeting on …, or some easy way for them to get involved and/or do something.]

References

1.California Environmental Protection Agency. Proposed Identification of Environmental Tobacco Smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant. Sacramento, CA: California Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment; 2005.

2. Break Free From Plastic. Branded Vol. III: Demanding corporate accountability for plastic pollution. 2020.

3. World Health Organization. Tobacco and its environmental impact: an overview. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017.

4. Environmental Protection Agency (1980). CFR §261.33 Discarded commercial chemical products, off-specification species, container residues, and spill residues thereof.

5. Hendlin YH. Alert: Public Health Implications of Electronic Cigarette Waste. Am J Public Health. 2018;108(11):1489-1490. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2018.304699.

6. Novotny TE, Slaughter E. Tobacco Product Waste: An Environmental Approach to Reduce Tobacco Consumption. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2014;1(3):208-216. Published 2014 May 6. doi:10.1007/s40572-014-0016-x.

7.Krause MJ, Townsend TG. Hazardous waste status of discarded electronic cigarettes. Waste Manag. 2015;39:57-62. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2015.02.005.

8.Hendlin YH. E-cigarettes and a new threat: How to dispose of them [blog]. The Conversation. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/e-cigarettes-and-new-threat-how-dispose-them. Published October 23, 2018. Accessed July 7, 2020.

9. Slaughter E, Gersberg RM, Watanabe K, Rudolph J, Stransky C, Novotny TE. Toxicity of cigarette butts, and their chemical components, to marine and freshwater fish [published correction appears in Tob Control. 2011 Nov;20(6):418]. Tob Control. 2011;20 Suppl 1(Suppl_1):i25-i29. doi:10.1136/tc.2010.040170.

10. Ocean Conservancy, International Coastal Cleanup. We Clean On, 2021 report. Washington, DC: Ocean Conservatory, International Coastal Cleanup; 2021.

11. Novotny TE, Slaughter E. Tobacco Product Waste: An Environmental Approach to Reduce Tobacco Consumption. Curr Environ Health Rep. 2014;1(3):208-216. Published 2014 May 6. doi:10.1007/s40572-014-0016-x.

12. Belzagui F, Buscio V, Gutiérrez-Bouzán C, Vilaseca M. Cigarette butts as a microfiber source with a microplastic level of concern. Science of The Total Environment. 2021;762:144165. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.144165.

13.UC Berkeley, University Health Services. Facts about cigarette butts and smoke. uhs.berkeley.edu. https://uhs.berkeley.edu/tobaccofacts Accessed February 25, 2022.

14.Rochman CM, Tahir A, Williams SL, et al. Anthropogenic debris in seafood: Plastic debris and fibers from textiles in fish and bivalves sold for human consumption. Sci Rep. 2015;5:14340. doi:10.1038/srep14340.

15.Choy CA, Robison BH, Gagne TO et al. The vertical distribution and biological transport of marine microplastics across the epipelagic and mesopelagic water column. Sci Rep. 2019;9:7843. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-44117-2.

16.Prata JC. Airborne microplastics: Consequences to human health?. Environ Pollut. 2018;234:115-126. doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2017.11.043.

17.Environmental Protection Agency (1980). CFR §261.33 Discarded commercial chemical products, off-specification species, container residues, and spill residues thereof. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2012-title40-vol27/pdf/CFR-2012-title40-vol27-sec261-33.pdf.

18.Hendlin YH. E-cigarettes and a new threat: How to dispose of them [blog]. The Conversation. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/e-cigarettes-and-new-threat-how-dispose-them. Published October 23, 2018. Accessed July 7, 2020. .

19.Seeberger J, Grandhi R, Kim SS, et al. Special Report: E-Waste Management in the United States and Public Health Implications. J Environ Health. 2016;79(3):8-16.