[Comic] Can Secondhand Smoke Harm Plants, Too?

 

Can Secondhand Smoke Harm Plants, Too?

There have even been experiments in which pothos plants (Epipremnum aureum) were directly exposed to cigarette smoke. In a 2025 study, the plants were exposed for 15 days to smoke equivalent to 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10 cigarettes per day.
The researchers found that greater and longer exposure reduced chlorophyll levels in the leaves, disrupted electron transport in photosystem II, and lowered overall photosynthetic efficiency. At higher levels of exposure, leaf area also decreased significantly.
So, plants may not have lungs, but it seems that breathing in cigarette smoke for a long time isn't exactly good for them, either.

Sources


Shah, G., Bhatt, U., Singh, H., Chaudhary, H. D., & Soni, V. (2025). Phytotoxic effects of cigarette smoke on indoor plant Epipremnum aureum: In vivo analysis using chlorophyll a fluorescence transients. Frontiers in Plant Science, 16, 1595713.