Despite the misleading blog post title, this post is hardly about the Magellanic penguins! If you wish to read more about this beautiful yet one of the most endangered species in the world, feel free to swim away.
Today’s topic is about how the electronic cigarettes contribute to the protection of the environment worldwide.
For decades, environmentalists in every corner of the globe have been pressuring cigarette producers to reduce the use of that multitude of synthetic chemicals in their cigarettes, in order to lower their harmful effect caused to both smokers and second hand smokers. National regulators seem to have respected the free will of an individual to smoke when he/she is alone, provided they are over a certain age and willing to pay the hefty tobacco taxes. All the regulators did was after deliberations that took years were to ban indoor smoking in public places. This allows the non-smokers to successfully avoid second hand smoke at their workplaces, in shops, in pubs, clubs, and restaurants. Tobacco smoking is not banned in any open areas such as open-air concerts, parks and at the beach. Well, you can’t blame them if they are out in the open since the smoke travels upwards, unless of course there is a breeze heading at your direction.
However, as also pointed out by Brian Clark Howard – a contributing author of National Geographic in one of his articles, there is still a huge problem with the cigarette leftovers, namely the tobacco cigarette butts that are left behind by smokers. Cigarette butts left behind usually form ugly and stinking piles in ashtrays, in dedicated trash bins or on the floor outside pubs, in the street and even on the beach sand. We all witness this horrible littering in our neighborhood, on our favourite vacation place, in the road to work, in the parking lots, even in parks where we take out kids to play. Cigarette butt litter is a major problem at beaches everywhere, in the ocean and throughout the watersheds that carry water, trash and debris to our beaches. Cigarette butts discarded in parking lots, along sidewalks and in street gutters may be very far from the coast, but inevitably make their way through storm drains, creeks and rivers to the beach and the ocean.
Also, unfortunately, we have all witnessed many smokers still tossing their consumed cigarettes out their cars. This hideous habit has also caused in many occasions the outbreak of forest fires, adding to the problem of environmental destruction. And let us not mention the air pollution every single time a tobacco smokers exhales.
They say the core of the butt can take anywhere from 18 months to 10 years to decompose in nature. During that time, the cigarette filters are still full of tar, nicotine and other toxins that can leak into the ground, potentially affecting any organism that inhabit the area. Environmentalist claim that, even after the full decomposition of the ashes and the butts, the pollution caused from the butt remains for a far longer time.
So, leaving aside the financial benefit of using electronic cigarettes instead of tobacco, or the health benefits of removing the thousands of chemicals inherent in tobacco cigarettes from your life, or the vast social benefits of being able to use the e-cigarettes gadgets almost anywhere without causing second hand smoke, the electronic cigarette has another great benefit – in terms of eliminating some important negative effects of the tobacco cigarette on the environment.
An electronic cigarette does not contribute to the huge problem caused by the above-mentioned environmental pollutions. Despite the daily growing popularity of the e-cigarettes, no electronic cigarette parts or e-liquid used bottles are thrown out the car windows or are found on beaches or the sidewalks. Now why is that?
Is it that electronic cigarette users are more environmentally concerned that the remaining tobacco cigarette smokers? Or is it that their decision to start using electronic cigarettes had something to do with the protection of the environment? Are the electronic cigarette users simply sick of finding the piles of cigarette butts, including maybe some of their own, at their favourite beach resort year after year after year? Could it be that they realized that cigarette butts tossed away, not only contribute greatly at natural destruction and potentially start a fire that destroys a forest, a field, or someone’s home, but also their country loses revenues from all that flocks of tourist that may have decided to visit a “cleaner and more environmentally friendly place” this summer? Or could it just be that electronic cigarette users realize that searching for ashtrays at the beach or elsewhere was not all that worth it anymore when a potentially far healthier and immensely more nature-friendly alternative to the tobacco cigarette already exists?
Who knows.
But the Magellanic Penguin does seems a bit happier.
vapourclub 