Friday, March 19, 1999
Smokers get many fuming on litter
Cigarette users share in disgust
BY CINDY KRANZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
It's a sunny, spring-like day on Fountain Square, the first mild weather in weeks.
Co-workers chat and eat their lunch. The strains of a saxophone mix with the jingle of an ice cream truck.
And cigarette butts sail to the ground with the greatest of ease.
Many Tristate employers banished smokers to the outdoors after public buildings went smoke-free in 1992. Since then, cigarette butts have multiplied on interstates, streets and sidewalks.
The Cincinnati Department of Health has warned smokers in the Cincinnati Commerce Center at Sixth and Vine streets and at the 525 Vine St. building downtown that they will start enforcing litter laws after March 31 because of complaints about cigarettes.
Keep Cincinnati Beautiful, the nonprofit group that sponsors downtown cleanups and street adoptions, found 7,000 cigarette butts in a four-square-block area one day three years ago in a study of cigarette littering.
The organization estimated that if all the one-inch cigarette butts littering downtown in a year were laid end to end, the line would stretch from here to Orlando, Fla.
In a four-block stretch from Elm Street to Fountain Square this week, a reporter counted 255 cast-offs. That was just what was visible on one side of the street.
Cigarette butts are so much a part of the landscape that you might not notice them, unless you have a pet peeve about littering.
Enquirer readers have noticed.
“It's really as if they don't see it as litter, but it is,'' said Kim Fain, 34, of Finneytown. “It seems like it is the smoker's revenge on not being permitted to smoke in many public places these days. They say, "If they won't let me smoke inside, I will just pollute outside.'”
Ms. Fain advocated fining smokers for tossing cigarette butts to the ground.
In cities that have fines for littering, the cost can be hefty. For example, the fine is $86 in Cincinnati, $50 in Covington, $150 in Mason.
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Derek Cedillo, 25, of Liberty Township suggests nons mokers take the matter into their own hands.
“I think most acts of "thoughtlessness' are committed because nobody takes the time to embarrass anyone anymore. A little embarrassment goes a long way,” he said.
At Fountain Square, Norwood smoker Kevin Connolly admitted he sometimes throws cigarette butts on the ground.
“It's something I should be more aware of,” said the 43- year-old, who has smoked for 30 years. “Technically, it's littering. I'm guilty.”
Smokers probably discard cigarette butts unconsciously by reflex, or because there's no ashtray handy, Mr. Connolly said. More ashtrays might circumvent the problem, he said.
At the Atrium One building downtown, Mike Sauer, a 25-year-old smoker from Mount Washington, couldn't defend litterers either. While on his smoke break from his sales job, he agreed with people who are disgusted with discarded cigarettes.
“I think it's nasty when people throw their cigarettes anywhere. You see it all over the highway. That's why I stand next to this,” he said, pointing to an ash tray.
On a trip to Hawaii two years ago, Mr. Sauer noticed the sidewalks and streets there are free of such litter. “People scream at you if you throw a cigarette butt,” he said.
In fact, a friend he was riding with threw his cigarette butt out the car window. Another driver honked his car horn and yelled. Tourists on boats are warned not to flick cigarette butts into the ocean.
At Fountain Square, one smoker mused in self-defense about whether tossing cigarette butts on the ground is worse than flinging a dirty diaper out a car window.
“It's amazing people think cigarette butts aren't litter,” said Linda Holterhoff, execu tive director for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. “A cigarette butt takes anywhere from five to seven years to biodegrade.”
After public events at Riverbend and Sawyer Point, she said, cleanup crews often have to pick up cigarette butts by hand, because they're too small to pick up by other means.
And cigarette butts aren't a problem on just sidewalks and lawns. The streets and interstates have become places where motorists not only dodge potholes and crazy drivers but flying Camels, too.
“There is nobody that goes around and hand sweeps curbs getting on and off expressways,” Ms. Holterhoff said. “People have to understand that nobody is picking up after them.”
Enforcement of litter laws and educating the public are two possible solutions, she said. “We have to start saying it's not acceptable.”
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