Posted on: Monday, December 1, 2003

EDITORIAL
Smokers, the Islands are not your ashtray

Usually at a beach cleanup, cigarette butts make up the bulk of the trash collected. And that's why some coastal cities on the Mainland are considering following the example of Solana Beach, Calif., which has banned smoking on the beach.

Not surprisingly, smokers and their sympathizers are outraged that tobacco use could be banned from the great outdoors.

Well, here's how you can help your cause, smokers: Don't treat the great outdoors as your ashtray.

After you stub out your cigarette, throw the butt in an ashtray or garbage can. And if there is no litter depository at hand, put your butts in a bag and dispose of them later.

It's like walking the dog. Time was, dog owners didn't pick up after their canines. Now, because it's the law, dog walkers rarely leave home without plastic bags and scoopers. And our sidewalks, parks and beaches are the cleaner for it.

We're not proposing that Honolulu ban smoking on the beach. But we would like to see tougher measures to prevent smokers from tossing cigarette butts into the sand, parks and other public places.

In case you didn't know, butt tossers are scofflaws under Hawai'i law, which defines criminal littering as a case in which a person knowingly places, throws or drops litter on any public or private property.

Besides, cigarette butts are ugly, smelly and not the least bit biodegradable if they've got a filter.

Moreover, flying butts are dangerous. Just ask motorcyclists, moped riders and cyclists who have swerved out of the path of a burning projectile hurled from a car window. While most vehicles come equipped with ashtrays, many smoking motorists prefer to use the road as their ashtray. Go figure.

Plus, one flick of a lighted cigarette can do a lot of damage. A blaze in Southern California that destroyed six homes and more than 10,000 acres in 2001 was started by a lighted cigarette tossed from a passing car.

Meanwhile, toddlers, who like to put things in their mouth, can get really sick when they eat cigarette butts.

Look at it this way: Would you climb into a bathtub with cigarette butts floating in the water, or lie in a bed filled with cigarette butts? Then what's so different about tossing butts on the beach where people lie in the sand and swim?