This is why when I occasionally smoke, I prefer smoking small cigars.
Its dried wrapped leaves. It will decompose fast and (to my knowledge)
is not doped with combustion regulators; they will extinguish pretty fast
if left alone, whereas a cigarette will cleanly burn all the way.
Another perk is how expensive they are compared to cigarettes, it's a natural counter to nicotine addiction.
> whereas a cigarette will cleanly burn all the way.
This may be region/regulation dependent, if you've noticed that. I don't smoke that often, but IIRC my cigarettes (in France) would extinguish after a while, without consuming themselves.
Are you sure? Afaik it is an additive to keep the cigarette alight. American spirits are missing that and will go put (as does pot and most any other dried plant)
This is the case in the US as well, or at least in the parts of it I’ve lived (Washington, Illinois.) This wasn’t true when I was a kid though, it’s a recent regulation.
It was the early 2000s IIRC. New York was one of the first (if not the first) states in the Union to introduce the requirement. At the time Vermont did not have the requirement so we used to drive over there to buy our smokes. The only thing on the packaging that indicated the difference was a little black bar above the UPC on the packs sold in New York (at least for the brand I bought).
Used to smoke American Spirit, which claimed to be "100% additive free". They would go out is not puffed on, which I always assumed was because there wasn't saltpeter &etc. in the mix
1. What are the little specks that appear to be moving around the soil from the very beginning of the video? Some kind of mite? Nematode?
2. Is it really this easy to get a closed ecosystem going? I suppose the rubber seal is still somewhat permeable, but I assumed the oxygen in the jar would be depleted quickly, and all that would be left would be anaerobic bacteria. In this jar he seemed to have fungus and plants growing, and the little specks (if alive) kept going the whole time.
Estimates for the degradation time of cellulose acetate filters vary widely, but they can range from several months to more than a decade, depending on environmental conditions.
It's important to note that even though cellulose acetate might break down over time, it doesn't truly biodegrade in the same way that organic materials like food waste do. Instead, it fragments into smaller pieces called microplastics, which can persist in the environment for much longer and have their own set of environmental and health concerns.
The end state of biodegradation is "mineralization" where complex molecules are fully broken down to simple ones like water and carbon dioxide. Cellulose acetate will mineralize as fully as food waste does, but it takes longer than food waste.
Not sure how true this is. The chemicals from the tobacco (aside from additives which I'm sure they're negligible in this context as the plant is not combusted) are.. from the environment? Nicotine is a pesticide so that would make it more toxic for certain parts of the environment, but I'm sure the environment will be fine consuming cigarettes. Way better than say a piece of plastic...
(some) cigarette filters do contain plastic, so that's not ok, but the tobacco part should be fine.
>The chemicals from the tobacco (aside from additives which I'm sure they're negligible in this context as the plant is not combusted) are.. from the environment?
PFAS, phosphates, CFCs, carbon monoxide, and BPA are all "from the environment", too.
What a weird comment. Especially calling out carbon monoxide, which is emitted only if the cigarette burns in this context but otherwise it is ubiquitous in nature and even used as a signaling mechanism by living organisms.
Your link pertains to health not environment. Most of the ingredients listed are in smoke. Inhaling any burnt plant matter isn't healthy.
I'm not sure how a decomposing plant in itself can harm the environment. I could imagine that synthetic additives are, but these seem to be overstated.
"Considering the harmful potential of PM, our findings note that the filter-tipped cigarettes are not a less harmful alternative for passive smokers. Tobacco taxation should be reconsidered and non-smoking legislation enforced."
Another perk is how expensive they are compared to cigarettes, it's a natural counter to nicotine addiction.