Cigarettes and your fish

http://news.discovery.com/earth/cigarette-butts-tobacco-fish.html

We have all seen those carelessly tossed cigarette butts lying on the pavement, walked by them, thinking of all the bad habits they represent. We all know the dangers of smoking and we’re pretty sure there’s a good amount of chemicals in that one sleazy roll of paper more than enough to poison the average human being. What we haven’t thought of, or thought in good amount of, is what happens to that little poison capsule after its been discarded. In an article, “Cigarette Butts Toxic to Fish” by Michael Reilly, the unhappy ending of that one cigarette butt is explored and its implied negative effects on the environment via a recent study done are explored.

“A single cigarette butt soaked for a day is enough to . . . kill 50% of the fish swimming in it. “ (Reilly 2009) This is an alarming factoid, considering the number of cigarette butts usually found littered across beaches. Also alarming is the fact that this kind of reaction usually takes 4 smoke filters to provoke the same end (Reilly 2009). A cause of concern is that many of these cigarette butts are also littered where they can easily contaminate the water systems their smokers have recently enjoyed. Precautionary principle would tell us that the future costs of cleaning up the amount of chemicals contaminating our water systems brought on by the carelessness of smokers would be more than enough reason to put into action some plans to stop its progression.

In fact there has been talk of banning smoking on beaches by various municipalities, a clear example of regulatory control being put into effect. However just simply having government regulation may not be as effective as educating the public first on how cigarettes affect the environment. Though government regulation is effective in keeping individuals who simply do not care from causing further harm. Especially if there is a fine involved.

There are also ethical issues to consider. Though there have long been places set aside for smokers to do their thing, who are we to tell someone where they can or cannot smoke. In a utilitarianistic view however, the majority of us are much happier, and probably the environment too, if smokers kept their activities as far away from us as possible. Its also ethically unfair to have non smoker suffer from the adverse affects of second hand smoke, and similarly unfair to have no concern of what those deadly chemicals in each little cigarette can do to the animals around us. Especially disconcerting when we do tend to eat fish, and fish filled with chemicals such as nicotine and poisonous benzenes suddenly do not seem as healthy or appetizing.

If you could help keep the ecosystems around you pristine with something as simple as making sure a cigarette butt is disposed properly, would you? I don’t believe it’s too much to ask. Now that more research is being done on the negative affects cigarettes have on not only us humans but other animals as well, it makes us more conscious of the little choices we make everyday in life. A simple regulation put in place does seem the best solution to this problem, but also increasing awareness of the dangers of cigarettes would help create a public knowledge that might actually give people a reason to quit. Not to mention we’ll be able to keep eating that well loved fish.