They may look harmless, but 4.5 trillion cigarette filters are littered worldwide each year making them the most abundant plastic pollutant on Earth. They are not biodegradable but are made of plastic fibers (cellulose acetate) They can take up to 10 years to break down into tiny pieces of plastic- microplastics – which are hazard to our environment. Even worse, the toxic compounds in cigarette butts, including formaldehyde, nicotine, arsenic, and lead, are leached into the natural environment, far outlasting the life of the butts themselves. Studies have shown that ๐—ฎ ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜๐˜ ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ณ๐˜ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—ฎ ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐Ÿฐ๐Ÿด ๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—น๐—น๐˜€ ๐—บ๐—ผ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ต ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ. Imagine the impact of 4.5 trillion cigarette butts if ๐Ÿญ ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ด๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐˜๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ฏ๐˜‚๐˜๐˜ ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐—ป ๐—ฝ๐—ผ๐—น๐—น๐˜‚๐˜๐—ฒ ๐Ÿฑ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜„๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ต ๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐˜†. Just another example of the far-reaching devastation the tobacco industry continues to cause.

The single action you can take that will make a real impact on this problem is to ๐—พ๐˜‚๐—ถ๐˜ ๐˜€๐—บ๐—ผ๐—ธ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด! Going tobacco-free will protect your health and improve the health of the planet.

This message is posted in partnership withย theย African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council (AATCLC)ย to help expand awareness of tobacco harm and their movement to end commercial tobacco use.