Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash • Hacker News Board

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#131

Post by jacobush » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 4:52 PM UTC

uxp100 wrote: post #128

qwerty456127 wrote: post #122

Why do people even smoke cigarettes when there are vapes for those who just want to inhale and exhale a cloud getting nicotine and cigars for those who want to enjoy real tobacco? Cigarettes are disgusting, toxic, expensive (as compared to a supply of liquid) and inconvenient (as you can't just inhale at any time you want). Why non-biodegradable cig filters are still not outlawed is another mystery.

Cigarettes taste like burning paper, and at their best smell just OK, but most smokers aren't walking around with cigarillos, despite the better ones tasting and smelling very nice. It's about nicotine delivery, and even the new hit with the kids, Juul, seems not as nice as a cigarette to me as a very infrequent nicotine user. Maybe box mods are different, I've only every tried the types of vapes you can get at tobac…

Snuff taken the way I know it, under the upper lip, gives a slower hit but a much stronger hit than cigarettes.

What I wonder is about the new "vape-like" pens which heats (real) tobacco but doesn't burn it. If that is similar enough to cigarettes to win cigarette smokers over. I would think so, but I'm not a real smoker (only tried a few times) so can't offer my own anecdata.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#132

Post by mavhc » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 4:57 PM UTC

qwerty456127 wrote: post #122

Why do people even smoke cigarettes when there are vapes for those who just want to inhale and exhale a cloud getting nicotine and cigars for those who want to enjoy real tobacco? Cigarettes are disgusting, toxic, expensive (as compared to a supply of liquid) and inconvenient (as you can't just inhale at any time you want). Why non-biodegradable cig filters are still not outlawed is another mystery.

Turns out drug addicts aren't super rational

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#133

Post by samstave » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:09 PM UTC

ape4 wrote: post #120

andybak wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(WE = weekend - I had to pause to parse that. Two letter abbreviations suck)

What do CS and IT stand for - joke ;)

Chocolate Shake and International Treaty.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#134

Post by systematical » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:11 PM UTC

How is it 2019 and tobacco is not illegal?

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#135

Post by varjag » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

homero wrote: post #20

craigsmansion wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because the butt is usually made to resemble some natural material like cork. Since the rest of it (paper, tobacco, and ashes) is easily degradable, I think the natural assumption is the butt is degradable as well, and the notion that every other smoker seems to think so isn't helping. So to answer the question: I suspect it's simply a lack of information. As a data point I'll add that I stopped deposing…

Yeah i thought it was biodegradable and thought they would melt away.

They certainly ain't no snoflakes but they do decompose within a few years. Compared to a plastic bag or straw are relatively benign.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#136

Post by xena » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

systematical wrote: post #134

How is it 2019 and tobacco is not illegal?

Literally grandfathered in :/

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#137

Post by Thriptic » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

bitL wrote: post #115

Thriptic wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I smoke cigars occasionally and this is exactly why I don't carry remnants home; they smell bad for several hours after use and I don't want to stink up my clothes or apartment. I try my hardest to dispose of them in a socially conscious way (in designated cigarette disposal boxes or by immersing them in water to extinguish them and then putting them in trash cans) but sometimes the infrastructure is not there to sup…

Get an air purifier with that portable ashtray you need anyway...

Is your suggestion really to spend hundreds of dollars on something I rarely use so someone on the street who I don't know won't be transiently offended by a discretely placed piece of small, biodegradable plant matter? Sorry, but expecting people to do that is not realistic.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#138

Post by thaumasiotes » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

lmilcin wrote: post #16

chrisseaton wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon? Smokers aren't exactly known for their good judgement, manners and consideration for others in the first place, are they?

Smoking is addiction that is demonstrably bad for your health and has no benefits. I grew up in an environment where smoking was encouraged and I can understand a person that conforms to their buddies. I have personally never tasted it but when I was teen virtually everybody smoked and it took a lot of willpower to withstand the pressure. I think these days, in western world, except for schools, low income neighborho…

No benefits?

> The heaviest smokers, with everything else being equal, had about half the number of parasitic eggs in their stool, compared to everyone else

> Smoking kills. But if you’re a bird and if you want to kill parasites, that can be a good thing. City birds have taken to stuffing their nests with cigarette butts to poison potential parasites.

> 8 intestinal parasite species have been recovered singly or in combinations from 146 (61.8 %) samples. The prevalence in prison population (88/121 = 72.7%) was significantly higher than that in tobacco farm (58/115 = 50.4%).

(from https://evolutionistx.wordpress.com/2018/04/18/did-tobacco-b..., which is basically just a collection of these quotes)

The reason smoking gives you a lower parasite load is surprisingly intuitive: parasites often move through the body by using the circulatory system, which is, after all, a transportation network designed to reach every part of the body.

The circulatory system, for business logic reasons, is a star topology which connects every point to every other point through a single central hub, the lungs.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#139

Post by snarfy » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:22 PM UTC

odiroot wrote: post #96

snarfy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are assholes to smokers. Like, it's socially acceptable to be assholes to smokers these days. I've had random people on an almost daily basis harass me for smoking. Flicking my butts on the ground was a big fuck you to all of the non smokers that harassed me.

I'm sorry but are you five or something? There are very good reasons to treat smokers negatively and you, completely without shame, gave us another one.

There really is no good reason to treat others negatively.

Re: Cigarette butts are the single greatest source of ocean trash

#140

Post by pieterhg » Sat, Jan 05, 2019, 5:25 PM UTC

woodruffw wrote: post #5

Only tangentially related, but I am continually astonished by the absence of any sort of social norms surrounding cigarette butt disposal. I have (otherwise environmentally conscious!) friends who smoke, and I've personally witnessed them flick their cigarettes into gutters and on streets. As a serious question, without judgment: are there any smokers on HN who can explain the phenomenon?

I'm stupid but when I used to smoke as a teen in Netherlands it was NORMAL to throw them on the street and sometimes step on them. I imagined back then they'd biodegrade (eg rot). Obviously they didn't.

Don't smoke anymore so that's nice.