Factoids

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Factoids

Eight to ten wads of chew tobacco a day provides the same amount of nicotine as smoking 30 to 40 cigarettes a day. i

3 to 5 mgs of nicotine from smokeless tobacco is absorbed through the lining of the mouth after it has been chewed or kept in the mouth for about half an hour. This is more than a cigarette smoker gets through the lungs (0.5 to 2.0 mg), but it takes longer to be absorbed.ii

You can feel the effects of the nicotine in five to eight minutes. Nicotine causes your heart to beat faster and your blood pressure to rise.iii

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world. Over 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered worldwide each year.iv

Cigarette butts take 15 years or more to decompose. As the filters slowly decompose, they leach many toxic ingredients into the ground and water.v

Cigarette butts are dangerous to wildlife and have been found in the stomachs or birds, dogs, cats and squirrels.vi

When an animal eats a cigarette butt or several cigarette butts, they feel full and can actually starve to death.vii

i The Truth About Spit Tobacco, Province of Nova Scotia, 2005.
ii Addictions Foundation of Manitoba
iii The Truth About Spit Tobacco, Province of Nova Scotia, 2005.
iv http://www.vanaqua.org/cleanup/impacts.php 
v Register, Kathleen M., Underwater Naturalist Bulletin of the American Littoral Society, Vol. 25, No. 2, August 2000 
vi www.recycle.ubc.ca/littermain.html 
vii The Canadian Press, August 2008