Even smokers know smoking is a nasty habit. Many feel they don't have the power to do anything about it as it has come to control so much of their lives. Yet, maybe if they knew just how costly cigarette smoking is to the environment each year they'd give the matter more thought. 

There are many ways to quit smoking. Supplements, patches, and prescription medication are just a few ways. Thrive side effects are nothing in comparison to what cigarettes are doing to you and the environment. 

Here is just a scratching of the surface of the impact smoking has on the environment. 

1. Cigarette Butt Litter

If a smoker were asked to pick up every cigarette butt he or she has ever thrown on the ground, can you imagine how large the pile would be? Considering the average smoker smokes 14 cigarettes a day, there might be half or more that don't make it to the trash. Over a year, that half becomes 2,555 butts. Over ten years, that half grows to over 25,000 cigarette butts that are sitting in the soil.

Cigarette butts contaminate the soil. They are a significant contributor to land and waterway pollution. Being that their filters are made from cellulose acetate, it is only under the most extreme of circumstances that they can be broken down in the environment, and even then they only become smaller pieces. 

When cigarette butts are carried into oceans and other bodies of water, they carry nicotine, metal, and pesticide residue with them. These chemicals present a danger to marine life. 

2. Manufacturing Cigarettes

It's not just smokers who are polluting the environment. It starts with the manufacturers. In order to grow tobacco, deforestation must occur. The trees are then used to create the paper that wraps around each cigarette. One tree can help produce 15 packs of cigarettes. If you smoke 300 packs of cigarettes a year, it takes 20 trees to support your habit. Trees are good for the environment, but what about your cigarette smoke?

3. Air Pollution

Each time a cigarette is smoked, the smoker releases carbon dioxide, methane, and other chemicals into the environment. These gases and chemicals continue to travel until they join the rest of human pollution in the atmosphere. 

Air pollution doesn't just occur with the aid of the smoker's lungs. It also occurs during manufacturing. Tobacco equipment used during manufacturing emits greenhouse gasses, and during the curing process, more chemicals are released. From start to finish, cigarettes pollute the air. 

4. Human and Animal Health

The environment people create through cigarette usage has a direct impact on human health. People in the United States are educated through childhood and into adulthood on the dangers cigarettes present to their health, yet every year new smokers join those who have yet to kick their habits. Here are just a few diseases directly related to the inhalation of tobacco products:

• Lung disease

• Heart attack

• Stroke

• Pregnancy complications

• Diabetes

• Autoimmune disorders

• Cancer

People and animals who come in direct contact with second-hand smoke are also at risk of contracting illness and disease related to exposure. 

5. Forest Fires

Tobacco-related products are the number one cause of home fire deaths, but they don't just cause house fires. They can cause catastrophe in entire forests. All it takes is one cigarette butt tossed out a car window on a dry and windy day. 

According to the U.S. Forest Service, 800 fires started on federal lands since 2006 can be directly attributed to smoking. However, there is good news. Since 1980, cigarette-related fires have declined by 90 percent. 

One smoker may not realize the impact they can have on the environment and their own health if they were to quit smoking today. The collection of chemicals to the atmosphere from their cigarettes would cease. Twenty trees would still stand this year alone. Thousands of butts wouldn't contribute to pollution of the soil and waterways. One smoker can make a difference for the good of everyone.