When we want to propose a definition of something we know or use, there is almost never a univocal answer: it is always a question of point of view. For example, what definition could we give of “cigarette”?

From the human point of view, the cigarette is a consumer item generally composed of tobacco leaves that is used by smokers. This is certainly a correct definition. But what if we changed our perspective and identified ourselves with something else? A road, a grain of sand, a blade of grass, a fish or a bird? How would the rest of the world answer this question?

“The cigarette is a POLLUTING WASTE ”: this is the definition we must deal with and worry about.

Yet we continually walk down the street and find dozens of them just a few meters away.
Throwing a cigarette butt on the ground after use is a carefree gesture and difficult to correct: it is a practice that has become mechanized in our modus operandi, perhaps because we associate their smallness with a hypothetical inoffensiveness.

When we throw a butt on the ground, we spread various harmful substances into the environment:

not only nicotine, but also heavy metals, arsenic, lead, formaldehyde and plastic.
Yes, definitely plastic too: cigarette butts are the most abundant plastic waste in the world.

Indeed, cigarette filters are made of a plastic material, cellulose acetate, which, if released into the environment, can take more than a decade to decompose.

In addition to pollution from cigarette butts and packets left on streets and beaches, cigarette smoking and tobacco cultivation also contribute to air pollution.

Human health, therefore, is as much a victim of smoking as the environment: just think that smoking twenty cigarettes a day can reduce the average lifespan of a young person who starts using them at the age of twenty-five by around five years.
Furthermore, a study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States identified twenty-seven diseases related to smoking: these are mainly tumors, various forms of cancer and respiratory diseases, but also damage related to the reproductive organs and pregnancy.

It's not just smokers who are affected : passive smoking can lead to a 20% increase in coronary heart disease and heart attacks. According to recent studies, diseases caused by passive smoking are also the cause of death of approximately 65,000 children per year.

Although the vapor it contains is less harmful than the smoke produced by burning tobacco, the electronic cigarette also presents health risks , especially at a cardiovascular and respiratory level.
From an environmental point of view, the electronic cigarette also pollutes due to its structure, since it was not designed to be completely recycled; in fact, their devices contain non-biodegradable materials.

We can therefore consider the path of smoking as a one-way street: that of vice.
The vice of deforesting approximately 200,000 hectares of land for tobacco plantations, the vice of throwing an unquantifiable number of butts on the ground, with the risk of causing fires as well as polluting and, finally, the vice of doing and harming ourselves.

Humanity's bad habits can no longer be supported by a world that asks for our help to be able to breathe again. Today we need a different approach: that of nature.

BE MORE THAN A HUMAN BE A HUMAN MAPLE!

Source: Ministry of Health | Smoking – Tobacco products – Electronic cigarettes