How Does Smoking Affect Us All?
It is widely known that tobacco can harm a person's body in many ways that may lead to disease or death. But have you ever thought of how tobacco impacts our lives in other ways, whether we smoke or not?
Tobacco products negatively impact and damage our environment. Cigarette butts are not just a nuisance, they are toxic waste. They contain chemicals that contaminate our waterways and ground soil and harm our wildlife.1 2 Discarded lit cigarettes can cause fires, which can damage homes and land.3 It is also very costly to clean up cigarette waste - a problem that continues to grow every year.
The state spends more than $9 billion per year on tobacco-related medical costs. Another $8.5 billion per year is lost as a result of reduced work productivity due to increased employee smoking breaks, illness and death.4
Let's preserve California's natural beauty and protect the health of its citizens by eliminating the impact of tobacco.
- Novotny, Lum, Smith, Wang, & Barnes, "Cigarettes Butts and the Case for an Environmental Policy on Hazardous Cigarette Waste." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2009 May; 6(5): 1691-1705.
- Register, Kathleen. "Cigarette Butts as Litter - Toxic as Well as Ugly." Underwater Naturalist Bulletin of the American Littoral Society. 25(20), August 2000.
- American for Nonsmokers' Rights, "Tobacco Environmental Toll." ANR Update, 27(4), Winter 2008.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs (SAMMEC)".
- California Department of Transportation, "Please Don't Tarnish the Golden State!"