Are cigarette filters effective? Read to know more

Smoking cigarettes have been always glorified in various ways. No matter, how hard activists and health professionals caution people on regular basis to avoid smoking still the figure keeps on rising at a rapid pace.

As per World Health Organization’s statistics, “Nearly 267 million Indians are chronic tobacco users and around 100 million people use tobacco in form of smoking.”

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Be it movies, corporate houses, educational institutions or rural areas, tobacco has expanded its roots in households by being a symbol of glamour, and masculinity and a sign of being elite.

Meanwhile, smokers have always argued that cigarette filters are capable of reducing the deadly impact of tobacco-emitted chemicals.

Here are a few interesting facts about Cigarette filters and their efficiency:

1. Cigarette filters were introduced in the late 1950s to reduce the harshness of smoking. Before that, people used to smoke raw tobacco directly through paper rolls.

2. Factory-fitted filters which give the illusion to the users of being safer than non-filtered ones are more dangerous.

3. The cigarettes filter were previously made up of cork to prevent tobacco flakes from being inhaled, the brown accent you see in regular cigarettes is an imitation to give a nostalgic feeling to the users.

4. Modern-day cigarette filters are made up of plastic cellulose acetate fibre. These filters are created by etherifying bleached cotton with acetic acid.

5. Smoking cigarette with factory-made filters only prevents tar and tobacco flakes from entering the smoker's body but don’t prevent harmful gases in any way.

6. As per studies, the burnt fibre inside the filters further enhances the toxicity of cigarettes and can be extremely toxic if smoked till its bottom line.

7. Flavoured cigarettes especially which are presented in switch format to release the desired flavour on bursting or squeezing the button are even more dangerous because of artificial agents being used.

8. Cigarette butts are the world’s most littered man-made waste, with around 5 trillion cigarettes smoked worldwide in a year.

9. Used cigarette butts absorb a huge amount of harmful chemicals, which when littered mixes with soil and release the toxic contents present in it. These filters are also responsible for causing damage to the water bodies.

10. Cigarette filters take nearly 2 years to decompose, causing a continuous harm to the environment.

(Disclaimer: Cigarette smoking is injurious to health, tobacco causes cancer.)