NEGATIVE EXTERNALITY

Sources: 1. https://www.economicshelp.org/micro-economic-essays/marketfailure/positive-
externality/
2. https://www.ieltsbuddy.com/ban-smoking-in-public-places-essay.html
3. https://www.acc.org/about-acc/press-releases/2010/02/22/11/56/21#:~:text=
%E2%80%9CPublic%20smoking%20bans%20seem%20to,increased%20with%20longer
%20ban%20duration.%E2%80%9D
A negative externality exists when the production or consumption of a product results in a cost to
a third party. For example, smoking in public places adversely affects those around them.
Smoking has never been a good thing. Medical studies have shown that smoking not only leads
to health problems for the smoker, but also for people close by.
 Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.
 Smokers or passive smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to develop heart disease,
stroke, and lung cancer.
 Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body: Bladder, Blood, Colon and rectum
(colorectal), Kidney and ureter, Larynx, Liver, Pancreas, Stomach, etc.
 Smoking also increases risk for tuberculosis, certain eye diseases, and problems of the
immune system, including rheumatoid arthritis.
1. The environmental impact of smoking
Cigarette smoking causes environmental pollution by releasing toxic air pollutants into
the atmosphere. The cigarette butts also litter the environment, and the toxic chemicals in
the residues seep into soils and waterways, thereby causing soil and water pollution,
respectively. Animals and plants that come into contact or absorb the toxic substances
from the cigarette residues are affected as well.
As such, it’s not only the cigarette smoke that causes manifold impacts on people and the
environment but also the cigarette butt and other wastes released during the entire
production process of cigarettes. Many fail to look at the critical side topic, which
pertains to how it harms the environment.
 Deforestation
The key ingredient in the manufacture of cigarettes is tobacco, and the reality is that most of it is
planted in rainforests areas. Accordingly, it has contributed to major deforestation in the areas
where it is planted. Areas, where tobacco planting began on small lands, are now extensively
covering large fields, and some of such places were covered by very dense forest. A publication
even indicated that in an hour, a cigarette-manufacturing unit needs about 4 miles of paper for
rolling and packing, which translates to the destruction of one tree for every 300 cigarettes made.
 Air Pollution Through Industrial Production Process and Farming
The industrial processing and smoking of cigarettes add huge volumes of air pollutants into the
atmosphere. Second-hand smoke pollutes the air directly, and the manufacturing process releases
air pollutants in many ways. It starts right in the tobacco farms where the machines used emit
greenhouse gases from the fossil fuel combusted to produce energy.
Wood-burning fires or special furnaces are also required in the curing process, releasing noxious
chemicals into the atmosphere. Transportation and shipping for industrial processing and to
consumer markets across the world further increases the environmental footprint from
greenhouse gas emissions.
 Air Pollution Through Smoking
Carbon dioxide, methane and other noxious chemicals are present in second-hand smoke, which
causes air pollution through smoking. Although methane and carbon dioxide are not deadly to
smokers, the gases do add to the general atmospheric pollution.
Smoking globally emits nearly 2.6 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide and 5.2 billion kilograms
of methane into the atmosphere each year. This provides a clear picture of how smoking alone
contributes to climate change. Second-hand smoke, as discussed earlier, also poses indirect
health risks such as cancer to other people and animals.
We find that air pollution can be approximated as cigarettes equivalent as follows:
(http://berkeleyearth.org/archive/air-pollution-and-cigarette-equivalence/)

Air pollution location Equivalent in cigarettes

per day
US 0,4
EU 1,6
Beijing 25
Shenyang 63

2. The impact of smoking on humans

(https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324644)
 Lung damage
Smoking cigarettes affects lung health because a person breathes in not only nicotine but also a
variety of additional chemicals. Cigarettes are responsible for a substantial increase in the risk of
developing lung cancer. This risk is 25 times greater for men and 25.7 times greater for women.
The CDC report that roughly 9 out of 10 lung cancer deaths is linked to smoking.
Smoking cigarettes also presents a greater risk of developing and dying from chronic obstructive
pulmonary disorder (COPD). In fact, the American Lung Association report that smoking causes
80 percent of COPD deaths. Cigarettes are also linked to developing emphysema and chronic
bronchitis. They can also trigger or exacerbate an asthma attack.
 Fertility problems
Smoking cigarettes can damage a female’s reproductive system and make it more difficult to get
pregnant. This may be because tobacco and the other chemicals in cigarettes affect hormone
levels. In males, the more cigarettes a person smokes and the longer they smoke for, the higher
the risk of erectile dysfunction. Smoking can also affect the quality of the sperm and therefore
reduce fertility.
 Vision problems
Smoking cigarettes can cause eye problems, including a greater risk of cataracts and age-related
macular degeneration. Other vision problems related to smoking include: dry eyes, glaucoma,
diabetic retinopathy
3. The impact of the smoking on economy
More than its enormous toll of disease, suffering, and death, tobacco use also burdens the global
economy with an estimated US$ 1.4 trillion in healthcare costs and lost productivity each year.

(https://balancingeverything.com/cigarette-prices-by-state/#:~:text=The%20average%20US
%20retail%20price,spend%20about%20%24688%20a%20year)
-As we can see in the graph, the
 POSITIVE EXTERNALITY
A positive externality exists if the production and consumption of a good or service benefits a
third party not directly involved in the market transaction. For example, if you walk to work
instead of using the car, it will reduce congestion and pollution, this will benefit everyone else in
the city.
Transport is considered a necessary condition for socio-economic development due to numerous
positive external effects it generates. But transport and infrastructure lead to many negatie
external effects, which are responsible for hampering the economic growth and development.
(https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/vehicles-air-pollution-human-health) Nearly one half of
everyone living in the United States—an estimated 150 million—live in areas that don’t meet
federal air quality standards. Passenger vehicles and heavy-duty trucks are a major source of this
pollution, which includes ozone, particulate matter, and other smog-forming emissions.
The health risks of air pollution are extremely serious. Poor air quality increases respiratory
ailments like asthma and bronchitis, heightens the risk of life-threatening conditions like cancer,
and burdens our health care system with substantial medical costs. Particulate matter is
singlehandedly responsible for up to 30,000 premature deaths each year. Passenger vehicles are a
major pollution contributor, producing significant amounts of nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide,
and other pollution. In 2013, transportation contributed more than half of the carbon monoxide
and nitrogen oxides, and almost a quarter of the hydrocarbons emitted into our air.
 Solutions
Clean vehicle and fuel technologies provide us with an affordable, available means of reducing
transportation-related air pollution and climate change emissions. These include fuel-efficient
vehicles that use less oil; cleaner fuels that produce fewer emissions; and electric cars and trucks
that can entirely remove tailpipe emissions.
Strong federal and state policies also help. Vehicle emission standards have helped cut pollution
from cars and trucks by about 90 percent since 1998, with further improvements coming from
the Tier 3 standards. Future emissions reductions from trucks and other freight sources are
essential for meeting air quality standards and protecting the health of those who live and work
close to ports, rail yards, and freight corridors.
-Drive less
-Drive wise
-Choose fuel efficient vehicles
-Don’t idle
-Optimize home deliveries
-Use efficient lawn and gardening equipment
 Advantages of reducing transportation use
There are numerous additional benefits to decarbonising transport apart from environmental
protection and mitigating climate change.

((

*The higher the API the worse air quality.

(http://oohclub.vn/ra-mat-wiki-traffic-cung-cap-du-lieu-luu-luong-giao-thong-toan-
quoc.html)