The message will air in a new ad campaign that was announced this month by the California Health and Human Services Agency (CHHS). While the ads will also include messages about California’s work to combat big tobacco, highlighting “tough” marketing ploys and raising awareness about quitting, the ads will focus heavily on the side effects to the planet of toxic tobacco waste.
Said Dr. mark Horton, Director of the California Department of Public Health, “California is proud, once again, to be a national leader in the fight against tobacco use and addiction, and is launching a new strategy – focusing attention on the degradation of the environment caused by discarded cigarette butts.”
That’s right – cigarettes are not only toxic to people, they are also, logically, toxic to the planet. Cigarette buttes are made of cellulose acetate, which is a plastic that does not biodegrade (repeat: DOES NOT BIODEGRADE) and can remain in the environment for many years. More than a hundred MILLION pounds of cigarette butts are discarded in the United States each year, making them the most common trash found on beaches and roads, according to Medical News Today.
So perhaps the State of California will not cause you to quit smoking (though we can hope). But at a minimum, perhaps you will think more responsibly about what to do about the simultaneous problem of cigarette butts.
Skip the smoke and do something equally addicting. Spend time on Facebook. Like us on Facebook to keep up-to-date on TGB.
<a href="http://www.tinygreenbubble.com/eco/environmental/item/1296-california-focuses-on-environmental-impact-of-smokingtag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.tinygreenbubble.com/eco/environmental/item/1296-california-focuses-on-environmental-impact-of-smokingThu, 06 Jan 2011 14:50:40 GMT 00:00″>California Focuses on Environmental Impact of Smoking