Next week's global conference on tobacco control will consider what to do about the sheer volume of cigarette butts trashing the planet, with some recommending banning them completely.
"The best thing that we could see for the environment is getting rid of filters altogether," Andrew Black, acting head of the secretariat of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), said on Nov. 13.
Plastic cigarette filters are the world's most littered item, leaching toxic chemicals into the environment and breaking down into microplastics, while doing very little for the smoker, the secretariat said.
The 11th conference of the parties to the FCTC is being held in Geneva from Nov. 17-22.
Black said that, among other topics, the gathering would look at the environmental damage wrought by the tobacco industry and its products.
"An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered each year worldwide, making them the most common form of litter on the planet," he told reporters.
"These discarded butts are toxic and a significant source of plastic pollution, due to their filters, which do not biodegrade."
Furthermore, plastic filters "don't provide any meaningful increase in the safety of cigarettes," he said.
Other major agenda items include the "aggressive marketing" of tobacco products, as well as widespread concerns about the numbers of children being lured into a life of addiction via new means of getting kids hooked.
More than 100 million people are vaping, including at least 15 million teens aged 13 to 15, according to the WHO's first global estimate of e-cigarette use.
WHO wants comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, including for e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches.
