Cigarette Smoking Analysis Essay

Editorial Essay
Author’s Name:
Institution:
Date:
Editorial Essay
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking claims approximately 480,000 lives each year in the U.S alone, which represents about 20 percent of the total number of deaths per year. Additional statistical research further indicates that the deaths caused by firearm-related incidences, alcohol use, motor vehicle accidents; HIV, and illegal drug use combined are less than that which is caused by cigarette smoking alone. Therefore, the government should prohibit cigarette smoking in all learning centers because of its associated environmental and health impacts.
Cigarette smoking has severe impacts on the environment. According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2015), post-consumption wastes of tobacco such as cigarette butts which are one of the most frequently discarded scraps in the world are the most common wastes that liter water edges and beaches globally. Additionally, non-biodegradable fiber acetate butts form a good percentage of the effluent that most cigarette-manufacturing companies discard every year. Some companies dump millions and trillions of such butt wastes, which together sum up to hundreds of thousands of tons of non-biodegradable wastes (Mathers, and Loncar). Further research by the WHO indicates that hazardous substances such as ethyl phenol, nicotine, lead, and arsenic are the essential constituents of cigarette butts. More often than not, these substances leach into the soil and aquatic environment from the discarded cigarette butt wastes. In effect, these leachates which majorly comprise of ethyl phenol, nicotine, lead, and arsenic may affect the quality of water which in return, goes a long way to impacting the lives of aquatic creatures.
Besides, batteries which power electronic cigarettes require such components as unique packaging materials, chemicals, disposal, among other non-biodegradable constituents. The constituent elements have proven to be dangerous environmental contaminants with an inherent capacity to harm the environment and human health through bioaccumulation via the food-chain (Riquinho DL, and Hennington EA., 2012). In effect, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) of the United States is keen on the absence of product policy that governs the components of electronic cigarettes.
Allowing smoking learning institutes such as colleges and universities where a multitude of learners from different parts of the world assemble creates a favorable breeding ground that lures and enhances large-scale smoking which in effect increases the rate of producing the waste products of tobacco (Mathers, and Loncar, ). In return, this augments the risk that results from discarding ethyl phenol, nicotine, lead, and arsenic products in the environment. Banning of tobacco may have irreversible consequences to serial smokers because of the presence of nicotine, which causes addiction. However, addiction per se is not a reason enough to allow smoking in learning centers and public (Riquinho DL, and Hennington EA., 2012). Therefore, colleges and universities need to develop and implement stringent policies which curb reckless and irresponsible smoking within their environs to pr...