Cigarette filters: a “potential ecocide”

In an article published on May 31, 2021 in Forbes magazine, MEP Michèle Rivasi examines the issue of cigarette filters, generating colossal costs for the community, and responsible for ecocide, a sustainable and large-scale environmental pollution.[1].

The Green MEP stresses the primary responsibility of tobacco manufacturers in the issue of filters, the health benefits of which are now being widely questioned by the scientific community.

A major factor in pollution

As Michèle Rivasi points out, cigarette butts are the cause of major environmental pollution. Of the 6,000 billion cigarettes produced worldwide, 90% of them are made up of a filter, of which 66% will end up thrown into nature after consumption. These filters, made of cellulose acetate, take years to degrade in nature. Furthermore, cigarette butts, which contain nearly 6,000 chemical compounds after consumption, including some known carcinogens and heavy metals, are the primary source of pollution in rivers and oceans, and contribute to soil acidification.

The polluter pays principle still insufficiently applied

The MEP also regrets that the entry into force of the polluter pays principle, supposed to have been in place since 1^er January 2021, is still not effective. This principle, which aims to make the industry participate financially in repairing the damage that their activity generates in terms of pollution, remains insufficient. According to Michèle Rivasi, while they are the first responsible for environmental pollution by cigarette butts, cigarette manufacturers only participate in the decontamination effort, without participating in the prevention effort (collection, treatment).

Thus, the extended liability of tobacco manufacturers currently only covers pollution of public spaces, thereby ignoring the management of cigarette butts collected in household waste. For the environmentalist elected official, this blind spot is all the more problematic since the small size and high toxicity of cigarette butts make them particularly difficult to recycle and treat.

Lack of health justification for the filter

As Michèle Rivasi mentions, the existence of the cigarette filter is more of a marketing argument than a health argument. Indeed, the filter is an invention of tobacco manufacturers intended to reassure. It also aims to soften the taste of cigarettes, and to facilitate the initiation of two target populations of the industry: young people and women. In the industry's sights for almost a century, the health situation of the latter is now worrying. In France, tobacco is responsible for the premature death of 20,000 women per year. Michèle Rivasi points out an "alarming" trend: between 2002 and 2015, among women, the number of new annual cases of lung cancer increased by 72% and myocardial infarction by 50%.

The cigarette butt, a “potential ecocide”

The MP criticises a provision of the French penal code, which punishes the throwing of cigarette butts on public roads with a fine of 68 euros. According to her, the financial burden of pollution is borne solely by the consumer, while manufacturers are primarily responsible.

Finally, for Michèle Rivasi, the situation generated by cigarette butts resonates with the notion of ecocide, as defined by Directive 2008/99/EC of the European Parliament: "the discharge, emission or introduction of a quantity of substances into the atmosphere, soil or water, causing or likely to cause death or serious injury to persons, or a substantial deterioration in air quality, soil quality, or water quality, or in fauna or flora". Discarded en masse into the environment, cigarette butts result in ecocide, through the lasting contamination of the environment and its ecosystems, constituting "as many violations of the fundamental rights of future generations".

FT

[1] Forbes, Cigarette filters: major pollution for minor health benefits, 05/31/2021, (accessed 06/01/2021)