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T°@AC{°'fAfE Yo°itt REY.EE3ttUn The Truths About Tobacco Litter • The biggest litter problem. Cigarettes are the most littered item in the United States and the world.° • Several trillion cigarette butts/filters are littered worldwide every year. That's billions of cigarettes flicked, one at a time, on our sidewalks, beaches, nature trails, gardens, and other public places every single day.4 • Slow decomposition. A single cigarette filter can take 5-10 years to decompose.2 After a cigarette filter has finally decomposed, it remains chemically present in the environment. Chemicals such as hydrogen, cyanide, and arsenic leach into nearby waterways and environments s • The white fibers you see in a cigarette filter are NOT cotton. About 96% of cigarette filters are composed of cellulose acetate, a form of plastic that can persist in the environment as long as other forms of plastic.2 • Cleaning up the shorelines. The International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) is an annual worldwide effort to clean up litter on beaches, lakes, and streams. They have found millions of cigarette filters in recent years: ~ In the 2005 ICC, cigarette filters, cigar tips, and tobacco packaging accounted for 62% of debris found in Minnesota, 35% of U.S. debris, and 30% of global debris.3 ~ Enough cigarette filters were picked up in the 2005 ICC that, if stacked end-to-end, they would go to the moon and back...twice!3 ~ During the 2005 ICC, Minnesota volunteers collected almost 650 smoking-related items (wrappers, lighters, and cigar tips) and over 10,000 cigarette filters a • Littered cigarette filters can start fires. These fires can cause massive amounts of damage and cost billions of dollars to the public. Nationally, annual human and property costs of fires caused by careless smoking total about $6 billion.2 • Children and wildlife can mistake cigarette filters for food. When ingested, the toxins in the cigarettes can cause nausea, vomiting, and other symptoms in children. Filter ingestion has also been known to cause death in many animals.2In 2003, The United Nations International Maritime Organization reported that cigarette litter adversely affected 177 species of marine animals and 111 species of seabirds through ingestions • Litter isn't cheap. The state of Minnesota spends more than $2 million a year picking up litter (and that doesn't count what cities and counties spend).1 Think of how much money we'd save if the most littered item- tobacco material-was reduced. ' Minnesota Adopt-a-Highway Facts ~ Ocean Conservancy - International Coastal Cleanup ' "Protecting Nonsmokers but Taking a Toll on the 2 Clean Virginia Waterways Project ~ CigaretteLitter.org Environment?" article from The Environmental Magazine