TITLE:
Do We Ignore Tobacco’s Positive Ecological Role Too Long?
AUTHORS:
Shaomin Yan, Guang Wu
KEYWORDS:
Air Pollution, Nitrogen Oxides, PM2.5, Phytoremediation, Tobacco
JOURNAL NAME:
Natural Science,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
14,
2020
ABSTRACT: Definitely,
tobacco is one of the most troubling plants in this planet because of its
harmful effects on humans. Therefore, tobacco plantation declines continuously
in the world. For such a plant, do we need to eliminate tobacco entirely from
the surface of the earth? Perhaps, humans might have ignored the tobacco’s
positive role in environment and ecology, especially in the heavily
industrialized environments, for too long. Because the human activity generates
more and more nitrogen oxides (NOx) in atmosphere, which not only
cause imbalance in the global nitrogen cycle but also lead to haze, smog, acid
rain, PM2.5, and eventually impact on environment and human health.
Unfortunately the current technologies do not provide an efficient way to
remove NOx from atmosphere. However, it is only tobacco can remove
NOx from atmosphere. Perhaps, we should blame us, humans who use
tobacco unwisely, rather than blame tobacco in nature. Anyways, the ability of tobacco
to remove NO2 from atmosphere should not be ignored.