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Smokers take heat for dumping cigarette butt 

Smokers have been driven like outcasts to the front of offices, hospitals and restaurants so that they don't taint other peoples' lungs.

Now they're under fire for another environmental scourge: cigarette-butt litter.

The dead filters -- dark after use with scores of chemicals and heavy metals -- clutter landscaping, litter office entrances, line gutters and wash into streams.

A monthlong initiative in Hillsboro Village this fall, complete with signs and cigarette-butt receptacles, reduced the cigarette trash by about 40 percent, according to the Metro Beautification and Environment Commission. The effort was made possible by a $1,500 grant.

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