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• Cigarette butts toxic to fish, say researchers 

Cigarette butts are toxic to fish and should be labeled as toxic hazardous waste, U.S. researchers say.

Scientists at San Diego State University say that a single cigarette butt containing a small amount of unburnt tobacco is enough to contaminate a litre of water and kill half of the fish swimming in it.

"Based on this new research, we believe that cigarettes should be considered toxic waste and new requirements need to be established for how they are disposed," Tom Novotny, a public health professor at San Diego State University, said in a statement.

The researchers tested the toxicity of the tobacco on fresh and saltwater fish: fathead minnows and top smelt — two species that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency typically uses in pollution studies.

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• Not Just an Eyesore: Analysis of Metals Leached from Smoked Cigarette Litter (PDF) 

Cigarette filters are designed to absorb vapors and particulate matter, many of which are considered harmful to smokers, from mainstream cigarette smoke. Each of the estimated 4.5 trillion cigarettes butts littered each year worldwide, therefore, is a potential point source for environmental pollution. In areas with substantial amounts of cigarette litter, serious environmental hazards may exist as the compounds absorbed from the mainstream smoke are leached out of the butts. Although the compounds and their concentrations in cigarettes and mainstream smoke have been extensively researched, few studies have attempted to identify and quantify the components leached from cigarette butts. The aim of this study was to determine the concentration of 12 selected metals leached from cigarette butts and whole cigarettes in aqueous solutions with the initial pH of 4.0, 5.0, and 6.0 ± 0.1. These pH-values were chosen based on the typical pH range of rainfall and were used to investigate the relationship between pH and leaching. Leachates were analyzed 1 day, 7 days, and 34 days after sample addition to assess the relationship between soaking time and leaching. The resulting leachates were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for the following metals: aluminum (Al), barium (Ba), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), strontium (Sr), titanium (Ti), and zinc (Zn). Based on comparisons with drinking-water standards set by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), Cd and Pb were proposed as the primary toxicants in cigarette litter leachates.

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• Falmouth voters OK ban on beach smoking  

Voters at last night's town meeting gave a big thumbs down to those who like to light up on the town's public beaches.

Smoking is no longer allowed on any of the town's 11 public beaches, following a 128-60 vote that makes Falmouth the third community on the Cape to snuff out smoking on municipal beaches. Proponents of the ban cited litter in the form of errant cigarette butts in the sand, as well as the harm caused by secondhand smoke, as the main reasons to pass the smoking ban warrant item. . . .

In the end, a majority of town meeting voters said they were tired of "inconsiderate" people on the beach who refuse to move even after complaints and throw cigarette filters in the sand, where young children often find them while building sand castles.

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• Scientists take aim at cigarettes 

Cigarettes don’t just kill people, they also kill fish.

So said San Diego State University researchers who are trying to build a case for labeling cigarette butts as toxic hazardous waste. That tag would prompt more rules to reduce their presence in the environment, though the bigger effect may be in public perception.

The San Diego scientists will present their conclusions today at the 137th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Philadelphia. They have submitted their results for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

“It’s another way of looking at cigarettes as a societal hazard,” said Tom Novotny, a professor of public health at SDSU. “If we reframe the butts as toxic hazardous waste, that adds another opportunity to change the social acceptability of smoking.”

Robert Best, regional director of the smokers’ rights group Citizens Freedom Alliance in Ventura County, is skeptical.

“This is just another attack on smokers and an attack on the entire tobacco industry, including farmers and distributors, in the midst of an economic crisis,” Best said. “We already have littering laws in the state of California that say you cannot throw any trash out on the ground or in the waterways.” . . .

Novotny and his collaborators in the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project want more controls on what they call the most littered object on Earth. Trillions of cigarettes are smoked worldwide each year, and more than 1 million butts are collected annually during coastal cleanups in the United States, according to the project.

Novotny wondered about the butts’ effects on waterways. He turned to Rick Gersberg, a professor of public health at SDSU who specializes in water pollution.

Gersberg, a former smoker, was intrigued enough to review the scientific literature and determine that there were no published studies addressing cigarette butts and fish. . . .

Gersberg helped design an experiment in which he let smoked filters soak in containers of water for 24 hours. Then he put fish in the polluted water and monitored them for five days, part of what he called a standard hazard assessment.

Half the fish died in both salt and fresh water, Gersberg said.

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• Hold On To Your Butt Awareness Day is Saturday, November 14th  

In an effort to raise awareness of the cigarette butt litter problem and reduce the amount of cigarette butt litter in the region, the Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter will be conducting Hold Onto Your Butt Awareness Day on Saturday, November 14 from 10 a.m. to noon at three locations in San Diego County.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in The United States and the world. This type of litter is not just found on streets and in urban settings; the number of cigarette butts found on beaches and nearby areas is overwhelming--typically accounting for nearly one in every three items collected during a beach cleanup.

Cigarette waste discarded miles inland compounds the problem as it can end up in drains that flow to streams, rivers, bays, lagoons and ultimately the ocean. To make matters worse, lighted cigarette butts flicked into California's dry arid environment can spark deadly and costly wildfires.

Hold Onto Your Butt Awareness Day will involve activists, volunteers and friends of the environment gathering on San Diego's busiest traffic intersections as people arrive at the beach.

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• HALLETT: Opposing view: Take protections outside  

Kudos to New York City for planning to expand its smoke-free indoor air law to include outdoor spaces. Thousands of communities have 100% smoke-free indoor air laws, and many of those now have or are considering laws that expand protections to outdoor places where people gather or work, such as parks, beaches and dining areas.

In fact, 400 U.S. cities and Puerto Rico already have smoke-free parks laws in effect; 82 cities, the state of Maine, and Puerto Rico have smoke-free beach laws. An additional 158 cities and three states (Hawaii, Iowa and Maine) have smoke-free outdoor dining. Smoke-free outdoor spaces are quickly becoming the national norm, and we have the science and public support to continue moving in this direction.

Fueling interest in outdoor laws is the growing body of science on the negative health effects of secondhand smoke exposure outdoors and the environmental effects of cigarettes and toxic cigarette butts. In 2006, the California Air Resources Board classified secondhand smoke as a Toxic Air Contaminant and called it "an air pollutant which may cause or contribute to an increase in deaths or in serious illness."

Additional research demonstrates that individuals with compromised cardiovascular systems might be at risk from brief exposures to secondhand smoke, even outside. . . .

We applaud New York City for working to eliminate toxic contaminants and trash from parks and beaches, and expect to see more cities follow suit.

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• Santa Cruz approves smoking ban for Pacific Avenue, Beach Street, West Cliff Drive 

City leaders on Tuesday unanimously approved a smoking ban along Pacific Avenue, Beach Street and West Cliff Drive, among other spots, and agreed to consider a new fee on cigarette sales in the near future.

"Our kids are picking up cigarette butts, kids are breathing cigarette smoke and it doesn't encourage a family atmosphere," said Councilman Ryan Coonerty, who proposed the ban along with Councilmen Mike Rotkin and Don Lane at the prompting of many in town.

The ban was warmly received by the audience of about 40 people, most of whom supported the new rules. Corinne Highland told the council she hoped it would create a cleaner environment for her 3-year-old.

"My 3-year-old picked up a cigarette butt and I shrieked," she said.

Some encouraged the council to go even further and eventually ban all outdoor smoking in Santa Cruz.

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• Jersey Town Bans Smoking on Beach, Boardwalk, Sidewalk  

But little Bradley Beach is about to one-up everybody.

The mayor and town council say they will soon pass an ordinance to ban smoking on the beach, the boardwalk, in fact, all the way out to the curb of Ocean Avenue (that includes a sidewalk).

"I usually don't come here that much because I have bad asthma and I really can't take it," says Calli Dobrzynski, a member of the Mayor's Youth Advisory Board.

So Calli asked her fellow board members to support smoking zones for their beach. . . .

The total beach and boardwalk smoking ban won't take effect until after this summer's season is over.

But when they took the idea to the council, the adults decided to go a step further and just ban smoking. Period.

"Why stop at a partial ban? Why not just say we are committed to keeping our beach clean and our people healthy," said Mayor Julie Schreck.

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• Capitol Hill tries to eliminate cigarette butts  

For the first time, the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District linked up with the Keep America Beautiful Cigarette Litter Prevention Program to help clear out tossed-away cigarettes left behind by smokers.

Three high-traffic areas on Capitol Hill were picked: the southeast corner of Eighth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue SE; on First Street SE in front of Bullfeathers and Tortilla Coast; and on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue between Third and Fourth streets SE.

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• Merseyside | 'Fake cigarette' legal bid fails 

A lorry driver lost his bid to overturn a smoking fine despite claiming he was using an "electric" cigarette.

Chris Minihan, from Liverpool, was seen smoking, flicking ash and throwing the butt away from his cab by council enforcement officers in Runcorn.

He fought the charge on Monday, saying he was using a device which mimics the actions of a real cigarette.

Runcorn Magistrates' Court rejected his claim and he was fined £200 for smoking in a company vehicle and littering.

Minihan, 42, from Walton, demonstrated his Gamucci electric cigarette in the dock during the hearing on Monday. . . .

In a statement, the council said Mr Minihan had been offered the opportunity to pay the fines but had declined and opted for court action.

"The council will continue to enforce the legislation on littering and smoking in accordance with national guidelines and council policy," a spokeswoman said.

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• JUDKIS: The Myth of the Green Cigarette  

Cigarettes are the most-polluted item in the world, so needless to say, smoking is not very green. Considering that only 10 percent of cigarettes are disposed of properly, any effort to reduce the amount of waste caused by smokers is a good thing, right? That's the thinking behind makers of several brands of e-cigarettes - a trendy new smoking alternative that dispenses nicotine through vapor, rather than smoke, in a reusable, odorless cigarette-like device. E-cigarette users can "smoke" indoors without affecting others. They never need a lighter, and prevent hundreds of butts from being stubbed out on the pavement, since the device uses rechargeable batteries and refillable cartridges.

Totally green smoking is too good to be true. Turns out, the electronic smokes - which are marketed on several websites as healthier than real cigarettes - can be as harmful as traditional kind. . . .

American Spirit is owned by Reynolds American, though, which diminishes its green cred.

So is there an eco-friendly way to smoke? In addition to the litter, Slate's Green Lantern urges you to consider the air pollution:

The global tobacco industry manufactures roughly 5.5 trillion cigarettes annually. Assuming that all those cancer sticks get consumed, smokers around the world spew out about 84,878 tons of fine particulate matter annually . . .

Whether or not the well-being of the planet provides any additional motivation, it's time to quit for the sake of your own health.

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• Litterbugs beware: Other drivers watching you  

Ever see a driver toss out a cigarette butt or paper cup and wish there was something you could do about it?

Your wish has been granted.

It's not quite a citizen's arrest, but an average of 1,025 Texans every month open their mailboxes to find a letter from the state saying they've been busted as litterbugs.

The letters are triggered by the report-a-litterer portion of the Don't Mess with Texas campaign sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation.

People submit alleged litterbugs' license plate numbers and other details, and TxDOT sends the letters when it finds a match through its vehicle registration database. Each letter is accompanied by a litter bag emblazoned, "Real Texans Don't Litter." . . .

One might think motorists would be incensed to be tracked down this way, but TxDOT's Mark Cross said the agency gets only a few calls about the program and a letter or e-mail now and then. The handful he unearthed mostly were from people who said they were wrongly accused.

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• BORGER: How My Cul-de Sac Became a College's Ashtray  

My street lies at the heart of a neighborhood problem that has mired the mayor and city council of Rockville and threatens to draw in state Sen. Jennie Forehand and even Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. Unfortunately, the problem has no easy solution.

For more than 40 years, my quiet cul-de-sac lived at peace with the Rockville campus of Montgomery College, while hosting a small pedestrian opening to a parking lot on that campus. In August 2008, Montgomery College enacted a campus-wide anti-tobacco policy. Suddenly, our street was flooded with smokers and loiterers. Large groups of people gathered to smoke in the cul-de-sac for hours each day.

The area quickly became a living ashtray . . .

My immediate neighbors and I would prefer that the college's fence remain closed because closure has eradicated a host of problems, some of which had been growing as the campus grew.

However, given the vocal nature and greater numbers of area residents opposed to the fence closure, the mayor and council of Rockville no longer support Montgomery College's decision to close the entryway. Most recently, they have decided to approach Montgomery College with a proposal that would require reopening the fence

I understand that for elected officials there are no easy answers, because votes matter. But no one would want what happened on my street to happen on his or her street. Ultimately, the fence belongs to Montgomery College, and it must act in accordance with its mission. Hopefully, that mission includes protecting its immediate neighbors from the harm even a well-intended policy can do.

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• SF Supes Committee Approves Cigarette Fee 

A proposal by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom to levy a fee on cigarettes to help pay for the city's cleanup of discarded butts received backing from a Board of Supervisors committee Monday.

The mayor's office, however, Monday lowered the originally proposed 33-cent-per-pack fee to 20 cents.

Newsom praised the decision by the Budget and Finance Committee, which is expected to forward the item to the full board next week.

"All litter creates unnecessary costs for the city and its taxpayers," he said in a prepared statement, adding, "Cigarette butts are a big part of the problem."

The cleanup also removes toxins that can leach from the cigarette butts into groundwater or the bay and ocean, he said.

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All litter creates unnecessary costs for the city and its taxpayers. Cigarette butts are a big part of the problem.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose plan to levy a unique fee on cigarettes to help pay for the city's cleanup of discarded butts received backing from a Board of Supervisors committee Monday.

• United Nations warns of untold damage to seas on first World Oceans Day 

Human activities are exacting a "terrible toll" on the world's oceans and seas, UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned here on Monday in a message marking the first United Nations World Oceans Day.

"Vulnerable marine ecosystems, such as corals, and important fisheries are being damaged by over-exploitation, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, destructive fishing practices, invasive alien species and marine pollution, especially from land-based sources," Ban said in his message. . . .

The report also noted that smoking-related activities, such as cigarette filters, tobacco packets and cigar tips, account for 40 percent of all marine litter in the Mediterranean, while in Ecuador smoking related rubbish accounted for over half of the total coastal litter in 2005.

"This report is a reminder that carelessness and indifference is proving deadly for our oceans and its inhabitants," said Philippe Cousteau, CEO of Earth Echo International and an Ocean Conservancy board member, in a message to mark the launch of the report. "There are solutions that everyone, everywhere in the world can adopt to make a positive difference for our water planet."

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