Quit the cigarettes

There are more than 5 trillion (that’s 5 thousand billion, or 5 million million
or, 5,000,000,000,000) cigarette butts littering the world.

These cause dust and dirt to pile up, clutter public places, and may have
an adverse influence on ground water and wildlife.

But little thought has gone into whether they also pollute the air.

The background

Smoking escaped scrutiny for decades because of the same absence of information

and awareness of the emissions from burning cigarettes, pipes and cigars.

This lack of measurement led to huge amounts of polluted air entering
the human lungs and the lungs of animals.

Once this was recognized following 50 years of measuring emissions from smoking cigarettes,
epidemiological studies were launched to help understand how these emissions affect the human organisms.

Mainstream and sidestream smoke

Much data has since poured in about how smoking affects the lungs and other parts of the body,
both during inhalation of smoke and exhalation.

Other than mainstream smoking, which is what smokers are exposed to, the health impact
of second-hand smoke has also been studied.

This includes smoke from burning tobacco as well as the smoke exhaled by smokers.

It is only in recent years that a new term, called thirdhand smoke, has come into use.

This refers to the residue of smoke that clings to surfaces like walls and furnishings,
both soft and hard, as well as to toys and clothes, even when no one is smoking.

All three categories of smoking have been found to promote the risk of cancers
and many other health problems.

The risk is especially high in infants and children because their bodies are still developing,
and this leaves the immature cells more prone to the effects of the toxins in cigarette smoke.

Source: News medical