City copes with cigarette butts
This isn’t the first time in this blog’s existence that the city has announced an attempt to persuade smokers not to throw their butts all over the place. Even though buildings install cigarette disposals outside, close to a third of the city’s litter is still discarded butts, full of toxic substances.
Jonathan 07:17 on 2019-05-19 Permalink
I did a bit of research myself a while back on what kind of toxic chemicals are actually in cigarette butts and found that there was nothing toxic in cigarette butts… The filters are made out of plastic fibers… So definitely a nuisance..
It seems like the only thing I could find about toxicity is just quotes from people like in this article saying they are toxic. But no actual evidence.
I’m not a smoker. Haha.
Kate 07:42 on 2019-05-19 Permalink
Maybe they’re not toxic till used?
dhomas 08:48 on 2019-05-19 Permalink
Kate is correct. Un-smoked cigarette butts are “just” plastic (Cellulose acetate), basically, though this is already not very good. Once smoked, cigarette filters retain up to 25% of the cigarette’s nicotine content as well as other toxins from the cigarette. The cigarette tobacco, as well as what’s left in the filters after they are smoked, is indeed toxic, especially for marine life, but also if ingested by children. There are some scholarly articles on the topic, but even just reading the Wikipedia article gives you enough information.
Chris 10:27 on 2019-05-19 Permalink
Also, toxicity isn’t boolean, it’s a matter of dose. Even water is toxic at high enough dose: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication
Kate 10:56 on 2019-05-19 Permalink
Chris, you’re the prince of tangents. Yes, even breathing air will eventually kill you, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? The problem here is the accumulation of toxins over time.
Chris 12:04 on 2019-05-19 Permalink
Kate, I’m not disagreeing that the problem is accumulation over time. It was just a example of why categorizing something as toxic or not (just two categories) is misleading.