Daniel Dwyer

March 15, 2009

Period 3

Research Paper
By: Daniel Dwyer
Does smoking have an effect on plant growth? Does it change the colors of the plants? Does

smoking effect leaf count? These are the questions I will find the answers to in experiment. I

hypothesize that the plants with smoke will be shorter, be different colored, and have less leaves than

the clean plants. The reason I chose this question is because I know smoking has a negative effect on

humans(proven fact), and does it have the same effect on plants? The smoke turns our teeth and

fingernails yellow(stated be Elizabeth Keyishian from Everything You Need to Know About Smoking),

so does it turn the plants different colors. One of my science topics that my question explores is the

effect of cigarette smoke. My other science topic for this project is plant relations, because of how the

smoke effects the plant growth.

Not many scientists have done research on the effects of cigarette smoke on plant growth, but

all the scientists have found the same result. All the scientists that did a one to two week project(Kelly

O'Malley, Jessup Gage, and Rebecca Gale from

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/FinalArticles/TheSmokeySituation.html and Phoebe B. Park

from http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2001/Projects/), found that they grew to be the same height.

They also noticed that the clean plants ended up to have more leaves. The long term scientists(

scientists from http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/FinalArticles/TheSmokeySituation, and the

scientist Ken Wolfe from http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/plantbio/1998-February/016652.html) found

the clean plants grew higher and had more leaves. In my tests I hypothesize that I will find that the

controlled plants will eventually stop growing and die.

The first of my two science concepts is the effect of cigarette smoke on plants. We know that the
smoke turns our teeth and fingernails yellow(stated by Elizabeth Keyishian), so will it turn our plants

yellow? The smoke goes into the pores of out clothes, so will it go into the pores of the plants? That's

what the people from

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/FinalArticles/TheSmokeySituation.html found. They had

found little colored spots on the plant leaves.

I am also trying to find out the effect of cigarette smoke on a plant's growth. Like I have stated,

the smoke from the cigarettes should be getting into the pores of the plants, weighing the top of the

plants down,(found by Barbara Moe from Teen Smoking and Tobacco Use) and causing the top to

droop down farther. The other scientists(Phoebe B. Park and the scientists from

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/FinalArticles/TheSmokeySituation.html) also found out in a

short term experiment the smoke had no effect on the plant height growth. In the long term projects

Ken Wolfe and the scientists from

http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/FinalArticles/TheSmokeySituation.html found the smoke had

a significant effect on the plant height and leaf growth. The smoked plants just stopped growing, and

the controlled plants surpassed them in height and leaf growth. Also all the test, long and short term,

noticed a change in leaf growth. All the smoked plants had less leaves by a wide margin compared to

the non-smoked plants.

I hypothesize that in my science experiment I will find that the smoked plants will grow to be

shorter, have less leaves, and also have colored spots from the cigarette smoke.I have learned that the

pores in our clothes keep in the smoke smell and the pores in the plants should keep in the smell, and

that will cause the plants to droop down, which will make the smoked plants shorter. I have also

learned that the smoke that gets absorbed by the pores in the plants will cause them to have colored

spots on the leaves. So my hypothesis will stay the same for my science investigatable question. In my

experiment I think that my results will prove that my hypothesis will be correct.
 Bibliography

Books
Moe, Barbara. Teen Smoking and Tobacco Use:A Hot Topic. New Jersey: Enslow Publishers, 2000

Keyishian, Elizabeth. Everything You Need to Know About Smoking. New York: The Rosen

Publishing Group,Inc., 1989, 1993

Internet
Gage, Jessup, Gale, Rebecca, and Kelly O'Malley. “The Smokey Situation.” 15 December.1998.

Natural System Wankle 23 February. 2009

<http://jrscience.wcp.muohio.edu/nsfall98/FinalArticles/TheSmokeySituation.html>

Park, B., Phoebe. “California State Science Fair 2001 Project Summary”. 2 April.2001. California

Science Center 23 February. 2009 <http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2001/Projects/S1612.pdf>

Wolfe, Ken. “Cigarette Smoke Effect On Plants?”. 7 February.1998. 23 February. 2009

<http://www.bio.net/bionet/mm/plantbio/1998-February/016652.html>