Cigarette filters take fifteen years to disintegrate - ever wonder why? - A Natural News exclusive look
Look, down on the sidewalk: It's not a sponge, it's not a huge pencil eraser, it's the butt of a cancer stick, and it won't be going away any time soon. You see them everywhere: on the beaches, in parking lots, on the grass at the park, in the gutters and in the smokers' sand-filled ashtrays outside of office buildings. A cigarette filter keeps the smoker's fingers cool, even when just half-an-inch away burns a red-hot cherry at 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit during the inhale. Cigarette filters or "butts" function like your attic insulation in the summer, keeping the house cool from the immense heat. But the heat from a burning cigarette carries with it more than just jacked-up nicotine, ammonia and formaldehyde; the smoke carries heavy metal toxins, bleach from the white paper and... wait for it... glass wool fibers . This is why it takes between 5 and 15 years for a cigarette to break down, break apart and disappear into the earth. No matt