this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2023
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I do have a problem with the ash. But I’ll admit that it’s more a conscious one than the emotional antipathy I feel towards the buds. The buds you can at least pick up and discard. But once the ash is on the ground, the pollutants are irretrievably in the environment.
Is it that much of a pollutant? Again just ash, I'm always pretty conscientious to dispose of my filter tips, but never thought the ash was a problem. Does it severely damage plant life? Is ashing in a concrete carpark more acceptable?
Not trying to get facetious here, genuinely trying to find out more.
I couldn’t find anything scientific specifically about cigarette ash, so I’m just reasoning from common sense.
Part of the problem of filter tips are heavy metals. I hypothesize that not all the metals are converted to gas and sucked into the filter while the cigarette is lit. Therefore there must be heavy metals remaining in the ash. These seep into the ground and ground water, whether the ash starts out on a parking lot or in a park.
If that’s dangerous to plant life depends on the plants living there. Tobacco, for instance, seems to handle them well (that’s how the metals get into the ash in the first place: tobacco sucks them out of the ground). “[S]ensitive plants growing in sites with heavy metals exposure show altered metabolism, growth reduction, and reduced biomass production and reduced yield.” [1]
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-41552-5_4
Okay, but are their heavy metals in the ash or just the tips? I use paper tips so I don't think there is any heavy metal in them, but if it's in the ash then that's different. Thank you for looking into it tho.