Alexis Kam
Professor Garrett
ENGL 101
December 2, 2015
A Polluting Earth
Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States, but most people don’t know that. Smoking causes various cancers and chronic lung diseases like emphysema and bronchitis, heart disease, and pregnancy-related issues (Tobacco Facts). On October 18, 2015, I went with a group of students from my English 101 class to pick up trash at a Heal the Bay cleanup event on Dockweiler beach. When we picked up a total of 992 cigarette butts on a public beach, I was shocked to realize how many cigarettes we found even though smoking is prohibited on state beaches. Within the next few weeks, I collected a bunch of used cigarettes off of the ground that I found on campus right next to one of the buildings even though it is prohibited to smoke within 25 feet of a building (University Smoking Policy).
I glued used cigarette butts to a piece of paper in the form of a tree trunk and then drew smoke to replace the branches on a tree. My art symbolizes how cigarettes emit pollutants that fill the earth with toxins. Trees “remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere [to] store it as wood fiber” and then they convert that carbon dioxide into oxygen which is released back into the atmosphere and breathed in by humans (Oxygen Generation). I also chose to have my art resemble a tree because cigarettes generate toxic smoke which is then inhaled by humans, just like how we breathe in the oxygen created by plants.
Through this project, I want to help students become aware of tobacco and why it is harmful. Most students don’t know the effects of smoking on their health and don’t know that it affects the other students around them and the environment. Smoking emits numerous hazardous pollutants like nicotine, which is very sticky and will be absorbed by clothes and then later released with the effects of tobacco still present. Not only does smoking affect the smoker’s health, it also affect the environment by “resulting into air, water and land pollution” because many people litter cigarettes on the ground. In addition, one tree is wasted for every 300 cigarettes and the chemical waste from manufacturing cigarettes is dumped into the soil (How Smoking Affects the Environment). Students need to become aware of the severe effects of smoking that damages their own health, other’s health, and ultimately the earth.
Through this project, I want to help students become aware of tobacco and why it is harmful. Most students don’t know the effects of smoking on their health and don’t know that it affects the other students around them and the environment. Smoking emits numerous hazardous pollutants like nicotine, which is very sticky and will be absorbed by clothes and then later released with the effects of tobacco still present. Not only does smoking affect the smoker’s health, it also affect the environment by “resulting into air, water and land pollution” because many people litter cigarettes on the ground. In addition, one tree is wasted for every 300 cigarettes and the chemical waste from manufacturing cigarettes is dumped into the soil (How Smoking Affects the Environment). Students need to become aware of the severe effects of smoking that damages their own health, other’s health, and ultimately the earth.
Works Cited
"How Smoking Affects the Environment." Ygoy. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"Tobacco Facts and Figures." Be Tobacco Free. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"University Smoking Policy." (2007): Administrative Law & Procedure. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
"Oxygen Generation by Planting a Tree or Having a Tree Planted." Million Forestry Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
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