For Some, All the World's an Ashtray

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | November 24, 2003 | Kathryn Balint

[Scenic Sounds]

Bans on smoking indoors have had an unintended consequence: more cigarette butts littering the outdoors.

It is an issue some people are beginning to regard as a serious environmental problem.

Across the nation, anti-litter activists are launching campaigns to get smokers to clean up after themselves.

And anti-tobacco activists are using the concern to push for outdoor smoking bans, as happened last month in Solana Beach. The North County city became the first in the state to ban smoking at the beach when its new law took effect Thursday.

The environmental message: Cigarette butts release contaminants into waterways, choke wildlife and take years to biodegrade.

"I pick up hundreds of them," said Jim Peugh, chairman of the conservation committee of the San Diego Audubon Society. "It's a huge concern."

Even as cigarette sales have decreased in the United States over the past decade, activists say there is anecdotal evidence that cigarette litter has increased.

Why? Some say laws banning smoking indoors have forced smokers outdoors, where there are fewer ashtrays or other disposal receptacles.

CigaretteLitter.org, based in Culver City, promotes free pocket ashtrays offered by cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds' Smokers for a Clean America campaign.

Of course, smokers long have flicked their cigarette butts out car windows, in parking lots, along sidewalks and at the beach.

Smokers may mistakenly think cigarette filters are cotton. Almost all filtered cigarettes sold after 1954 use cellulose acetate, a type of plastic that takes up to 11 years to biodegrade.

"Back in the '70s, ashtrays in cars were actually filled with cigarette butts," said Marco Gonzalez, chairman of the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. "Now, they're filled with change and knickknacks. People don't want their cars to stink."

This past summer, Surfrider members held up signs on street corners in coastal areas of San Diego County, urging smokers to "Hold onto your butt."

The foundation is working with the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority to bring the same message by advertisement to travelers at Lindbergh Field.

Surfrider also has public service announcements for television in the works. To finance their production, the organization sold two surfboards signed by musicians in the rock band Pearl Jam on eBay, bringing in $10,000.

The announcements – starring celebrities whose identities Surfrider won't disclose – are expected to air nationwide beginning in May.

Anti-tobacco activists have jumped on the bandwagon and also are invoking the environment in their efforts to ban smoking outdoors.

A group of 35 high-school students who picked up more than 6,300 cigarette butts from North County beaches used environmental arguments to persuade the Solana Beach City Council to ban smoking at the beach and in parks.

Solana Beach Mayor Tom Golich said the council went ahead with the ban on smoking because it didn't want its coastline and parks turned into ashtrays.

At last year's Coastal Cleanup Day in San Diego County, volunteers picked up more than 68,000 cigarette butts – the most prevalent litter – at beaches and along inland waterways. Figures for last month's cleanup aren't available.

But it's not just the beaches. As almost anyone can attest, cigarette butts are a common form of curbside litter. Metered freeway on-ramps and left-hand turn lanes are particular trouble spots.

Along California's highways, the state Highway Patrol last year cited 5,684 motorists for tossing cigarettes out the window, 10 percent more than in previous years. It is a violation that is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

"It's a pet peeve of mine," CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt said.

Once, he said, a burning cigarette landed on the hood of his patrol car.

Nationwide, smokers consumed 425 billion cigarettes in 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

That amounts to about 160 million pounds of cigarette butts, according to Clean Virginia Waterways, founded by Kathleen Register, faculty member at Longwood College in Virginia and author of one of the few scientific studies on the effects of cigarette litter on the environment.

Register looked at the effects of nicotine and other chemicals found in cigarette butts on water fleas, small transparent crustaceans.

Nicotine, found in tobacco leaves, is a powerful insecticide. Water fleas are commonly used to determine the toxicity of polluted water.

All of the water fleas in Register's study died within two days when they were exposed to two or more used cigarette filters in a half-gallon of water. All of the water fleas that were kept in a container of clean water lived.

Register went on to found Clean Virginia Waterways to educate the public about the problem of cigarette litter.

"Personally, I believe that educating smokers, just like we've educated people who drink sodas, is going to make the biggest inroads on this issue," Register said.

Cigarette maker Philip Morris, a founding member of Keep America Beautiful, says part of the problem is that there aren't enough ashtrays outdoors in public places. It has mailed pamphlets promoting the use of personal ashtrays, small pocket-sized receptacles, to some of its customers.

Not everyone views cigarette litter as a looming environmental problem.

"I don't consider that a big issue," said Fred Lorenzen, a Sierra Club member. "It's something we all have to do individually. There are more important things we have to deal with, like new developments, saving the backcountry, making sure the water is good quality."

Kathryn Balint: (619) 293-2848; kathryn.balint@uniontrib.com

[Scenic Sounds]

Cigarette maker Philip Morris, a founding member of Keep America Beautiful, says part of the problem is that there aren't enough ashtrays outdoors in public places. It has mailed pamphlets promoting the use of personal ashtrays, small pocket-sized receptacles, to some of its customers.

Public smoking can be consistent with good citizenship!

[Lijahsbubbe]

It's too bad people need a public service announcement or fines to teach them about manners.

[Reagan Renaissance]

"All the World's an Ashtray"

And all of the radical environmentalists are half-baked, half-ashed and half-witted.

[palmer]

We have a sign at the door downstairs that says (paraphrase) please don't throw your butts on the ground, the cockroaches are getting cancer.

[Khurkris]

I am a bit neurotic about seeing cig butts all over the place. Maybe flashbacks to 'policing the area.' Whatever the reason, I just hate to see them. People wanna smoke thats their business. Just be responsible for the entire process.

[MikeWUSAF]

Smokers are some of the most inconsiderate people I've met.

There is nothing worse than driving down the road and having a butt bounce off your window from the jerk in front of you.

I'm glad that it is becoming politically correct and will be happy when the day comes that it is banned in public places in my city.

Flame away, I don't care! I'm sick of smelling it and leaving restaurants smelling like it!

[Agnes Heep]

Hard to believe that smokers can care more about the environment than their own bodies.

[EggsAckley]

As to knick-knacks and coins in ash trays, they neglect to mention that many, many new cars DO NOT have ash trays.

[winodog]

I agree. For some reason seeing people flick their cig butts out the window at stoplights gets under my skin as much as people who can walk using handicapped spots does.
Look down when you stop at a light and the ground is covered with cig butts.
And to top it off I have seen people dump ashtrays full out the door at places like 7/11.
I know this isnt in the top one thousand list's of crimes but I guess the total lack of respect is what ticks me off.

[nothingnew]

puff

FMCDH

[Mr. Bird]

Along California's highways, the state Highway Patrol last year cited 5,684 motorists for tossing cigarettes out the window, 10 percent more than in previous years. It is a violation that is punishable by a fine of up to $1,000.

And it should be strongly enforced. Throwing a lit butt out of a window in CA can burn half the state down.

But...the "problem" of butt disposal will never go away. I find it hard to believe things are worse now than when a majority of people smoked. Here in Baltimore, the trees are festooned with plastic grocery bags. Where do the anti-smoking zealots stand on the tree bag problem?

[gcruse]

I'd like to see one of Vogue's rail-thin, almost a dyke supermodels field strip one of their Eves without breaking a nail or stabbing herself, I really would. ;)

[Scenic Sounds]

Is public smoking a "liberal/conservative" issue? If so, how did that division arise?

[HamiltonJay]

Well, after being hit with a still burning cigarette while riding behind a kind driver who lovingly flicked her but out her window as I followed her on my motorcycle.... lets just say some people need lots more than a public service announcment.

[kallisti]

and i'd like to see them policing an area.

[Lijahsbubbe]

You mean like a foot-in-butt announcement?

[Lijahsbubbe]

And how about the shopping cart problem?

[Mr. Bird]

Is public smoking a "liberal/conservative" issue? If so, how did that division arise?

The debate has multiple levels. In my opinion, laws banning smoking in privately owned establishments such as bars and restaurants are a gross usurpation of property rights. The owners of such businesses should be free to allow any otherwise legal activity at their discretion.

The second-hand smoke issue is a canard presented by tortious miscreants looking to make a buck off of junk science. There are absolutely no statistics indicating "second hand smoke" is anything other than an annoyance to those who do not smoke. Well, no legitimate statistics, I should say.

This call to arms against butts is I suppose a fairly new one; it is rooted in sound thinking. Littering is a bad thing. But, as the article indicates, as smoking is restricted, the places in which the butts can be safely discarded vanish as well.

The easy thing to do is simply say the smoker is wrong, and punish him for careless disposal of butts. But the smoker does not behave in strictly rational ways. The smoker is aware that his very life is likely to be shortened because of his habit. You don't think he's going to refrain from the occasional butt-flick out the car window because we're threatening to take some cash? If the prevalence of discarded butts is a serious issue, then the appropriate way to address it is to think of ways to actually solve the problem, rather than just spanking smokers.

[Great Dane]

Agreed, but cigarettes are not the only things tossed, will Pampers and Luve provide free bags for parents, will Big Mac privede garbage containers for their litter, I could go on.

[MikeWUSAF]

"Is public smoking a "liberal/conservative" issue? If so, how did that division arise?"

Smokers see the issue as more government intervention and interference in their lives. Most of them refuse to admit that their filthy habit effects others and feel "picked on" by non-smokers thus they take the conservative stance of less government.

I am a non-smoker and loath smoking however I believe what people do in their own homes is their business to include smoking. Having said that, I would like the same courtesy from smokers when I'm at a restaurant attempting to eat or standing in a confined public area.

I've been flamed to hell by smokers on FR and I'm amazed at how many of them truly don't believe that their habit has an effect on anyone else around them.

I'd like to prove my point one day by eating a pot full of beans and spicy chili and then stand in the middle of a bunch of smokers and fart until their noses bleed...

[Agnes Heep]

Is public smoking a "liberal/conservative" issue? If so, how did that division arise?

It really shouldn't be. I think of it more as a public health issue. The trouble is that liberals want to use the police power to cut smokers off from smoking altogether, and many conservatives have responded by promoting smoking as a positive good, rather than simply as yet another noxious habit that free people have a right to indulge in within their own space.

[Phaedrus]

Balint's head is a PC ashtray.

[DumpsterDiver]

Where do the anti-smoking zealots stand on the tree bag problem?

They are not enough zealots in this world to tackle all of life's problems, so I am putting you in charge of plastic bags. I'll be in charge of food wrappers and discarded cups from fast food joints. Illegals aliens will be recruited to pick up used Pampers and abandoned shopping carts.

Tally ho!

[joesnuffy]

Note to smokers
"Field Strip" your butts....

[DumpsterDiver]

And how about the shopping cart problem?

It's being taken care of. Please see post #23.

[MikeWUSAF]

"...no legitimate statistics, I should say."

Do you need statistics to know that breathing that crap is bad for you? I figured coughing would be self explanatory…

Here are some "legitimate statistics" for you:

The 1999 National Cancer Institute Monograph 10, based on the 1997 Cal-EPA review of population-based studies, confirmed that SHS is both fatal and has numerous non-fatal health effects. SHS chemicals include irritants and systemic toxicants, mutagens and carcinogens, and reproductive and developmental toxicants. Over 50 compounds in tobacco smoke are known carcinogens. SHS exposure causes lung and nasal sinus cancer, heart disease, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Serious impacts of SHS on children include asthma induction and exacerbation, bronchitis and pneumonia, middle ear infection, chronic respiratory symptoms, and low birth weight. (National Cancer Institute "Health effects of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke: the report of the California Environmental Protection Agency". Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph 10)


SHS is the third leading cause of preventable death in this country, killing 53,000 nonsmokers in the U.S. each year. For every eight smokers the tobacco industry kills, it takes one nonsmoker with them. (Glantz, S.A. & Parmley, W., "Passive Smoking and Heart Disease: Epidemiology, Physiology, and Biochemistry," Circulation, 1991; 83(1): 1-12; and, Taylor, A., Johnson, D. & Kazemi, H., "Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Cardiovascular Disease," Circulation, 1992; 86: 699-702)


The 1986 Report of the Surgeon General, the 1986 National Research Council report Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Measuring Exposures and Assessing Health Effects, and the 1992 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders established that SHS exposure causes lung cancer.


The 2000 Environmental Health Information Service's 9th Report on Carcinogens classified SHS as a Group A (Human) Carcinogen--a substance known to cause cancer in humans. There is no safe level of exposure for Group A toxins. (Environmental Health Information Service, "9th Report on Carcinogens," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Toxicology Program, 2000)


SHS levels of secondhand smoke in restaurants are approximately 1.6 to 2.0 times higher than in office workplaces. Levels in bars are 4 to 6 times higher than in offices. (Siegel, M. "Involuntary Smoking in Restaurant Workplace: A Review of Employee Exposure and Health Effects." Journal of the American Medical Association, 270:490-493, 1993)


Smoking restrictions in workplaces, restaurants, and other public areas are associated with dramatic declines in serum cotinine levels among nonsmokers-an indication that smoke-free environments significantly reduce exposure to SHS. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Strategies for Reducing Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke, Increasing Tobacco-Use Cessation, and Reducing Initiation in Communities and Health-Care Systems" Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Recommendations and Reports 49(RR-12): 1-12, November 10, 2000)


Just as the science regarding the health risks of SHS has increased, so has public concern about SHS. According to a 2001 Gallup poll, 52% of American adults feel exposure to secondhand smoke is "very harmful," compared with just 36% in 1994. (July 2001 Gallup Poll www.gallup.com)


Even half an hour of secondhand smoke exposure causes heart damage similar to that of habitual smokers. Nonsmokers' heart arteries showed a reduced ability to dilate, diminishing the ability of the heart to get life-giving blood. In addition, the same half hour of secondhand smoke activates blood platelets, which can initiate the process of atherosclerosis (blockage of the heart's arteries) that leads to a heart attack. These effects explain other research showing that nonsmokers regularly exposed to SHS suffer death or morbidity rates 30 percent higher than that of unexposed nonsmokers. (Otsuka, R., et al. "Acute Effects of Passive Smoking on the Coronary Circulation in Healthy Young Adults," Journal of the American Medical Association, 286: 436-441, 2001) (Burghuber, O., et al. "Platelet sensitivity to prostacyclin in smokers and non-smokers," Chest, 90: 34-38, 1986)

I guess this is all just "Junk Science" because you don't agree with it?

[Mr. Bird]

I'd like to prove my point one day by eating a pot full of beans and spicy chili and then stand in the middle of a bunch of smokers and fart until their noses bleed

Won't work; I'd just laugh. :^)

But to your point about eating, shouldn't the restaurant owner be able to decide? Surely some owners would market themselves as smoke free and gain new customers, just as those that advertised a smoggy, ashtray-filled setting would attract the smokers in their market.

Personally, I try to be very considerate of my surroundings when I light up. Heck, I don't even smoke in my house because I'd rather my house not smell like smoke. Interestingly, I have older (60+) friends and relatives who do not smoke and do not mind people smoking in their houses. I guess it takes all kinds...

[Scenic Sounds]

Well, you and I can remember the real cigarette commercials. ;-)

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I had two lit cigarettes tossed into my convertable and burn the leather.

I am also sick of walking into a business or sitting at a stop light and seeing and endless sea of cigarette butts.

[Mr. Bird]

I guess this is all just "Junk Science" because you don't agree with it?

No, I think it's junk science because it fails to properly and honestly evaluate precisely what it purports to study. Granted, you can't post the entire studies, but I've read several.

No one in his right mind would suggest that the actual smoke emanating from a lit cigarette (or a smoker's lungs) is fairy dust. It's smoke. It's not good for you. But it ain't going to kill you if you're catching a whiff over in the non-smoking section, my friend. All SHS studies disregard the idea of concentration levels.

As one report states, Class A toxins are safe at no level. Well, people don't drop dead when someone crassly blows smoke on them, so they're not deadly at every level. Are communion takers more susceptible to cirrhosis?

Like I said, I try to be considerate. But when someone sues a tobacco company for pancreatic cancer induced by their great-aunt's cigar smoking habit, I get annoyed too.

[SamAdams76]

Maybe flashbacks to 'policing the area.'

You must have been in the military too! When I was in the Marines, I can't tell you how many times I had to "police the area." They'd line us up, hand us plastic bags and say "If it don't grow, it goes (in the bag)". I hated that, especially since I never smoked. The best thing about making NCO for me was never having to pick up a cigarette butt again.

What annoyed me even more than cigarette butts in those days was those who chewed tobacco. To them, the whole world was a spittoon! One night, a roomate of mine was using an empty beer can for a spittoon. I set my beer can down next to his and you can guess what happened next. Yep, I grabbed the wrong can and took a swig. That will put hair on your chest.

[Scenic Sounds]

many conservatives have responded by promoting smoking as a positive good, rather than simply as yet another noxious habit that free people have a right to indulge in within their own space.

That's a very perceptive observation. That sounds to me like a losing strategy for both smokers and conservatives. ;-)

[r9etb]

yet another noxious habit that free people have a right to indulge in within their own space.

Indeed. The problem is how to define "their own space."

Jefferson defined its boundaries as the tip of the next fellow's nose -- a rather appropriate description for the topic at hand.

[gcruse]

Yeah, we don't do it like we used to.
"Blow some my way....on second thought,
keep it to yourself."

[Just another Joe]

Bump for place marker

[Protagoras]

I'm glad that it is becoming politically correct and will be happy when the day comes that it is banned in public places in my city. Flame away, I don't care! I'm sick of smelling it and leaving restaurants smelling like it!

Move to a totalitarian country and your problem (and ours) is solved.

Many smokers are inconciderate. All authoritarian anti-freedom people are despicable.

[Scenic Sounds]

Smoking was cool until the tobacco industry killed John Wayne. Very unAmerican. Very uncool. ;-)

[Protagoras]

"Is public smoking a "liberal/conservative" issue?

Property rights define the difference.

BTW, even though it's irrelevant, I don't smoke.

[Protagoras]

I'd like to prove my point one day by eating a pot full of beans and spicy chili and then stand in the middle of a bunch of smokers and fart until their noses bleed...

You have already done the literary equivilent of that here with your anti property rights screed.

[MikeWUSAF]

I appreciate the fact that you are considerate however you are in the minority.

This will continue to be a crossroads issue for conservatives. I guess we would all be better off if we just treated others like we would want to be treated.

Happy Thanksgiving to you both…and please don't smoke around the Turkey ;)

[MikeWUSAF]

"anti property rights screed."

Whatever.

[Gabz]

If the prevalence of discarded butts is a serious issue, then the appropriate way to address it is to think of ways to actually solve the problem, rather than just spanking smokers.

You have a good point.

I'm a smoker and abhor seeing litter of any sort, not just butts. I do not flick my cigarette out the car window and I do not permit any passenger to so so either - that is why there are ashtrays in my vehicles.

When it comes to the banning of smoking indoors, I believe the entity doing the banning should provide a proper receptacle for desposal. If the restaurant owner wants to be smoke-free that should be his perogative, but I think he should supply a means of disposal outside the establishment. and if it the government banning the smoking indoors, they should be providing receptacles to all the owners of private businesses they have enforced this on.

Over the years as smoking bans have become more prevalent I have noticed a huge decrease in the numbers of ashtrays outside of businesses. When one mall I used to frequent instituted a no smoking (except in the restaurants) policy they removed all the indoor ashtrays, but put lots of large ones, along with benches outside all of the entrances.

shortly after the state added malls to the non-smoking aras in the state back in the early 90s those ashtrays started disappearing.

When the city banned smoking in most private businesses a few years earlier a lot of businesses that had outside ashtrays because of their own private policies removed the ashtrays. Their attitude was they were providing a service that the city should rightly be doing since the city was now inflicting the ban on them.

I don't know how to solve the problem - I truly don't.

[Minn]

There is nothing worse than driving down the road and having a butt bounce off your window from the jerk in front of you.

Nothing?

[Gabz]

I appreciate the fact that you are considerate however you are in the minority.

I don't think considerate smokers are in the minority. In fact I think inconsiderate smokers are in the minority of smokers.

The vast majority of my friends are smokers, but wouldn't dream of smoking where it bothered someone else. I don't even smoke in the same room in my own house if my SIL is visitng, because it bothers her, not because she has asked me to do. OTOH, she will go to a bar even knowing it permits smoking.

The true minority are the screaching anti-smoker gnatzies that make lots of money being schreeching anti-smoker gnatzies. The vast majority of non-smokers, while many prefer smoke-free, would much rather leave the issue up to business owners rather than the government.

If more people, such as yourself, spoke up to the owners of your favorite establishments they may decide that being smoke-free would be more profitable to them. If non-smoking were good for business, don't you think more places would go that way voluntarily? But most don't because they have not gotten customer input about it.

[Agnes Heep]

Indeed. The problem is how to define "their own space."

I'm inclined to define it as space that one controls by virtue of ownership. To be perfectly honest, I can't see that there's anything unconstitutional about banning smoking in public places, because if it's done legislatively it's simply a manifestation of majority rule. But there are lots of things done by majorities that are just not very practical, or indeed, downright stupid. Trying to ban a practice that goes as far back as smoking, and is indulged in by a third of the population is simply not practical, primarily because public opinion doesn't really support it. Get it down to 15 percent, and and it'll probably fly. Of course, if you get it down to that level, you won't need any laws.

[Scenic Sounds]

Trying to ban a practice that goes as far back as smoking,

Do you think it would help or hurt the cause of public smoking if we could find some evidence of smoking in this picture?

[Major_Risktaker]

All of these groups must be organized by sissy men or divorced jaded women with to much time and money on their hands because it feels like one giant henpecking superbowl party for them day after day after day.

[Mr. Bird]

it feels like one giant henpecking superbowl party

LOL.

[Protagoras]

Nothing?

There are many things worse. Like anti-private property fascists coming on this board and masquerading as conservatives.

[Grit]

Smokers Tailgaters are some of the most inconsiderate people I've met.

:)