No Butts about It…
Tobacco Litter is Hazardous to Children and Wildlife
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In 2004, American Poison Control Centers received
nearly 8,000 reports of children poisoned by the ingestion of cigarette butts.1
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Children who ingest cigarette butts
can experience vomiting, nausea, lethargy, and gagging.2
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Stepping on freshly discarded
cigarette butts can result in burns.
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It is estimated that over two billion cigarette
butts are discarded every day worldwide, and that Americans alone discard more
than 175 million pounds of cigarette butts every year.3
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Cigarette butts, made of plastic
cellulose acetate, take approximately 15 years to decompose.4
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Cigarette butts are often cast onto sidewalks and
streets and frequently end up in storm drains that flow into streams, rivers,
bays, lagoons and ultimately, the ocean.5
¯ Within an hour of contact with water, cigarette butts can begin leaching chemicals such as cadmium, lead and arsenic into the marine environment. Cigarette butts have been found in the stomachs of fish, whales, birds and other marine animals, leading to ingestion of hazardous chemicals and digestive blockages.6
1. American Association of Poison Control Centers Annual Report of the Toxic Exposure Surveilllance System at 645 (2004) available at U.S. Dep’t of Health and Human Servs., Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Ingestion of Cigarettes and Cigarette Butts by Children – Rhode Island, January 1994-July 1996, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 46(06), at 125-128 (1997), available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046181.htm (last accessed October 18, 2006).
2. Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Chapter, Hold on to Your Butt!: Our Beaches and Streets are Not Your Ashtray, at http://www.surfridersd.org/hotyb.php (last accessed October 18, 2006).
3. Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Chapter, Hold on to Your Butt!: Our Beaches and Streets are Not Your Ashtray, at http://www.surfridersd.org/hotyb.php (last accessed October 18, 2006).
4. Surfrider Foundation, San Diego Chapter, Hold on to Your Butt!: Our Beaches and Streets are Not Your Ashtray, at http://www.surfridersd.org/hotyb.php (last accessed October 18, 2006).
5. http://www.buttsout.net/litter_stats
Prepared by Adirondack Tobacco Free Network