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0 pointsnikeee5y ago0 comments

Cigarette filters are the largest source of trash floating in the ocean and are usually not bio-degradable [1, 2]. They end up as micro plastics. Banning them instead of plastic straws can be seen as vastly more effetive [3].

Edit:

It seems pretty useless as they essentially have no function (edit: to health), since the near-universal adoption of filters on cigarettes has not reduced harms to smokers and lung cancer rates have not declined [4]. And the color change is something that was added to make the filter to appear to be effective [5]:

> The tobacco industry determined that the illusion of filtration was more important than filtration itself. It added chemicals in the filter so that its colour becomes darker when exposed to smoke (it was invented in 1953 by Claude Teague working for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company). The industry wanted filters to be seen as effective, for marketing reasons, despite not making cigarettes any less unhealthy.

So trying to be rational here, they don't have any health benefits and are responsible for a large share of the microplastics in our ocean.

[1]: https://www.businessinsider.de/international/new-study-shows...

[2]: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/cigar...

[3]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/plastic-straw-ban-cigar...

[4]: https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i10

[5]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette_filter#Colour_change

0 comments

wolco5y ago

"they have no function". They limit and control the amount of smoke. Provides a more consistant experience. I read your #4 source as proof. It talks about how cigarette companies tried coming up with a filter to reduce death but stopped because the filters were reducing the taste/experience. That doesn't tell us filters have no use. Include that link it tells us that in the 50s cigarette companies offered filterless and filtered versions. Customers preferred the filtered versions. You made the mistake of thinking the only purpose of filters is less death. Filters prevent tabacco from fall out, better taste, more consistant smoke, nevermind you need somewhere to hold the cigarette as it burns and without a filter you throwaway more tabacco.

#5 Most cigarettes butts are not brown at least in my megacity. White is more popular.

Cigarette butts can take upto 10 years to breakdown at the most.

https://uhs.berkeley.edu/tobaccofacts

Single use plastics take 1,000 years.

One will breakdown in your pets lifetime the other will take a millennia.

We need to ban single plastic use. And perhaps dig a little deeper before making assuming associations (if cigarettes are bad the filters must be destorying the earth / meanwhile the coffee lids you get every morning is really the problem)

chameleon_world5y ago

"4. Butt waste is not biodegradable: Filters are non-biodegradable, and while ultraviolet rays from the sun will eventually break them into smaller pieces, the toxic material never disappears."

Yes the break down but it seems they break down into smaller plastics or microplastics, which are being found in rain https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6496/1257

nikeeeOP5y ago

> "they have no function". They limit and control the amount of smoke.

I edited my comment so be more precise. They don't seem to have a function to reduce health risks.

> #5 Most cigarettes butts are not brown at least in my megacity. White is more popular.

Well, the color change is about the change in color when used (not the initial color).

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