Up in Smoke2 min read

Stepping off the plane with my eyes wide open and hungry for adventure, I took in my first breath of fresh London air.
Actually, I use the term “fresh” very loosely, given the scent of tobacco penetrating my lungs.
This city is vibrant – a patchwork of big red buses and trademark telephone booths around every corner. However, it was consistently dulled by a lingering cloud of smoke. Obviously some of this is just the muggy weather, but I can’t help but wonder how much contaminated air we’re really breathing.
Pollution emerges not only from smoke itself, but also from the harmful pesticide application, unsustainable packaging procedures, and wasteful disposal of cigarette remains. From the moment the tobacco plant takes up valuable farmland for production to the moment the cigarette butt is discarded, its existence damages the environment, infiltrating ecosystems, releasing toxins, and even starting forest fires.
19% of men and 15% of women in the United Kingdom have reported smoking cigarettes regularly, making this the leading cause of preventable death in the U.K. According to the World Health Organization, tobacco kills up to half of its users, and 80% of deaths from bronchitis and lung cancer are a direct result of smoking.
Because of these health threats, England has put laws in place to restrict the harmful effects of tobacco use. Twenty is now the minimum number of cigarettes that can be purchased at a time, making the cheapest pack £8.82. 10g and 20g packages of rolling tobacco have also been abolished, and smokers are forced to invest in at least 30g at a time. These rules aim to emphasize the strain smoking places on both your health and your wallet. By May of 2020, flavoured cigarettes and menthol cigarettes will be banned in England entirely, and by this time retailers carrying tobacco products will be required to sell the last of their boxes with appealing labels or logos. Government officials have taken data from a study conducted by the Australian government, whose goal was to find the world’s ugliest colour. Based off of this information, new cigarette packaging will all be printed in opaque couche (a brownish-green) and feature large health warnings that take up 65% of printing space.
So why is it that such a large amount of the population is able to pick up a box labeled “smoking kills” and proceed to purchase it? Everybody who smokes seems to overlook the addictive qualities of nicotine, but are they aware of the thousands of other chemicals packed into those little paper tubes? How many people would continue smoking if they knew that carbon monoxide (the main poisonous gas released from car exhaust), cadmium (a chemical used in batteries), arsenic (a deadly poison), acetone (effective ingredient in nail polish remover), formaldehyde (chemical used to preserve dead bodies), and a combination of over 5,000 other gases are released with every puff? Is the issue that people are ill informed, or is it that they simply do not care?