Tobacco cigarettes and their filters read like a laundry list of disturbing chemicals. A vast majority of them are known to cause cancer. Only tobacco companies could explain and justify why things like arsenic, lead, menthanol, ammonia, and hydrogen cyanide need to be included, but these are highly poisonous substances, lethal even, and should not be put into the body on a daily basis even in the smallest quantities! When these sorts of ingredients are found in other consumer products, warnings are issued and printed so that the customer is well aware of it.

Toxic ingredients are the only problems with tobacco cigarettes. There are also problems with the tobacco itself. The tobacco farming industry is not exactly applauded for it’s stellar practices. Tobacco has lead to major deforestation, leaching of precious topsoil, infusing native soil with radioactive fertilizers and harmful pesticides, and therefore creates dangerously polluted run off water, that leads to larger bodies of water, pollution intact.

And then there is the pollution cigarettes, cigarette packs, and lighters create. Too many times smokers have gotten into the habit of littering with their cigarettes and cigarette waste. It’s a problem that plagues the entire earth, and it would seem easy to push anti-littering campaigns, but really? If they haven’t stopped discarding their butts like this by now, will they ever as long as they are smokers? Cigarette filters are not biodegradable, and all those lovely chemicals in those filters cause further havoc on the environment, as they slowly get buried beneath layers of soil.

So while chemicals, pollution, and deforestation are major issues, the problem lies with cigarettes. If less smokers are using them, and choosing electronic smokes instead, it means less people are buying cigarettes and not further supporting this industry. Less tobacco means less chemicals, pollution, and deforestation for the world to contend with.

All the more reason to get with the times, and get an e-cig starter kit!