Experts urge UK to ban cigarette filters to protect health and environment

Polling found that more than four-fifths of smokers erroneously believe filters protect against the health harms of smoking. Photograph: Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

Cigarette filters do not work and are a major source of plastic pollution that should be banned by the UK government, experts have said.

In an editorial in Addiction, the journal for the Society for the Study of Addiction, researchers argue that ministers should use a forthcoming tobacco and vapes bill to “ban filters in the interests of public health and the environment”.