The Board of Supervisors of Santa Cruz County, California, on Oct. 29 decided to ban the sale of filtered cigarettes and cigars, making it the world’s first jurisdiction to do so, according to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
The sales ban will apply to all unincorporated areas of the county and requires that two of the four incorporated cities in the county pass similar ordinances before coming into effect.
Cigarette filters are the world’s leading source of trash and the leading source of plastic pollution. Globally, approximately 4.5 trillion used filters are discarded into the environment every year. Filters are nonbiodegradable and cannot be feasibly collected or recycled.
“There are no downstream solutions to the plague of cigarette filters,” said Laurent Huber, executive director of ASH. “The only practical choice is to eliminate them from the market.”
“In addition to adding microplastics to the environment, hazardous chemicals from tobacco smoke that are trapped in the filters leach into water and soil,” said Georg E. Matt, co-director of the Center for Tobacco and the Environment at San Diego State University. “Cigarette filters have no health benefits to smokers; they just make it easier to get people addicted and keep them addicted.”
Around the world, several jurisdictions are also considering filter bans. Environmental ministries in Belgium and the Netherlands have recommended banning filters, and over the past several years, bills have been introduced in several U.S. states. Current negotiations at the United Nations on a treaty to end plastic pollution include text banning filters worldwide.
The tobacco industry added filters to cigarettes in the 1950s in response to growing health concerns about smoking, but critics contend that they don’t reduce the health risks. More than 98 percent of cigarettes are filtered.