Color me highly skeptical. Tobacco, as such, is not particularly more hazardous or toxic than just about any other plant product. The smoke from burning tobacco is actually quite similar to smoke from burning cotton, wood, or other plants.
The reason cigarette smoke is hazardous is simply because people routinely inhale it deeply into their lungs in massive quantities over long periods of time, because of the addictive qualities of nicotine. It’s not that there’s anything all that unusually hazardous about the smoke itself.
Since cigarettes are mainly tobacco and paper (wood/cellulose), I find it difficult to imagine discarded butts as all that toxic. But possibly there’s something unusually hazardous about the filters.
The filters are plastic. They do not biodegrade.
Your logic is spot on.
The reason cigarette smoke is hazardous is simply because people routinely inhale it deeply into their lungs in massive quantities over long periods of time, because of the addictive qualities of nicotine. It’s not that there’s anything all that unusually hazardous about the smoke itself.
CO in the gas phase is pretty bad, but it is present in all combustion/pyrolysis by-products. The "tar" contains many carcinogenic compounds, but so does almost all combustion by-products.
Since cigarettes are mainly tobacco and paper (wood/cellulose), I find it difficult to imagine discarded butts as all that toxic. But possibly there’s something unusually hazardous about the filters.
The U.S. market primarily uses the polymer cellulose acetate in cigarette filters. The polymer itself is not hazardous, but it does not biodegrade well at all. Some overseas markets use paper (cellulose) filters. They provide a different "taste" because they don't quite filter out the same compounds as cellulose acetate. But they do biodegrade. Of course, someone will complain that they are toxic sponges containing the "tar" that is leached out by the rain and contaminating the environment.
A big part of the problem is all the chemical additives that are put in cigarettes by the tobacco companies. If you must smoke, smoke tobacco as God created it, not the chemical laden crap from the corporate pushers.