Environment News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005
Sad Butt True – Here, There and Everywhere!
by Sue Verstraten
On a recent trip to Carnarvon Gorge, we walked over 20 kilometres past
amazing cave art and through gorges, finally coming to Big Bend, a water
pool with a mirror surface. We were gazing at water trickling down over
moss- and fern-covered rocks, our boots off with toes pushing through
warm sand, and there they were again: cigarette butts. Ugh!
No matter where you go, you cannot escape this modern-day scourge. Laid
end to end, all the butts from cigarettes smoked in Australia every
year would encircle the planet 16 times. Worldwide, there are 4.5 trillion
butts disposed of annually – litter that causes significant environmental
harm.
With the recognition of smoking as a health hazard, as evidenced in
the new anti-smoking laws introduced in Queensland on 1 January 2005,
smokers are now being driven outside and are thereby exacerbating the
litter problem. Health authorities see not just smoke but the butt itself
as a health hazard.
Not only are cigarette butts found in the stomachs of wildlife, but
children have been known to try to eat them and have been made sick
from ingestion, with symptoms such as vomiting, gagging and lethargy.
Here are some points to ponder...
Filter tips are designed to trap some of the 3,900 dangerous chemicals
found in cigarettes. They are made of cellulose acetate, a rayon-type
fibre with a touch of radioactive polonium-210!
Researchers note that "smokers may not consider that a cigarette
butt is litter, but these products seem to be ubiquitous".
These little poison pellets often blow from footpaths into gutters,
wash into stormwater drains and into creeks and finally out to sea.
They can take from three to 13 years to break down.
Since the first Clean Up Australia campaign, cigarette butts have always
been one of the items most collected by the volunteers, and this is
also true overseas.
In Hawaii, smoking has been banned in outdoor locations and at a popular
tourist beach, where butt pollution has reportedly been linked to tumours
in sea life.
According to the NSW Fire Brigade's 1995 Annual Report, as many as 1,200
grass and bush fires each year can be attributed to butts thrown onto
the ground or roadside. In an attempt to reduce the number of fires
caused this way, tobacco companies have been asked to remove the additive
that
keeps a cigarette alight.
Each week we sweep the street outside the Co-op and pick up at least
15 cigarette butts and other litter. If we hosed the footpath, this
litter would just head down into Obi Obi Creek – or, should I
say, much of the water supply for Caloundra City and Maroochy Shire.
Not so thirsty now, are you?
With every rain, butts end up in the creek, and Lori has taken photos
to prove it.
Become part of the solution
Next time you go anywhere in town, check out the gutters; and when you
visit scenic lookouts or national parks, just look down so you also
become aware of the problem and become part of the solution.
So, now that you're aware, what can you do?
When driving, use your ashtray if you smoke and save yourself an on-the-spot
fine of $60 or $375 in bush areas.
Carry a cigarette butt container and use it! Empty film canisters work
well and you can pick one up at the Co-op. If you own a shop or business,
provide an ashtray or bin for butts and label it so that others also
become aware.
Of course, there is one last option which would help not only the environment
but yourself, and that is to quit smoking altogether!
[Sources: Planet Ark; Clean Up Australia Cigarette Butt Fact Sheet;
"Tobacco Control" 1999; 8:75-80]
[From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005; published by
The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny,
Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.coop@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]