Opinion
Tobacco debris is the most littered item in the world. These butts are flipped all over the country, in parks, zoos, hiking trails, campgrounds, beaches and piers.
Against popular belief, cigarette filters are not made of cotton. They are made from cellulose acetate, which is a plastic. Most filters decompose in approximately ten years, but it can take up to 22 years for one filter butt to decompose in some situations.
Tobacco litter poses a serious health hazard to children and animals. The toxic residue in butts not only litters the environment, but seeps into underground water systems and poisons the soil.
There are over 4,000 chemicals in each cigarette, with over 60 known carcinogenic. Examples of chemicals found in cigarette litter are: formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia, nicotine (a natural occurring insecticide in tobacco leaves), acetone, carbon monoxide, and benzene. It is a complex mixture which cannot be changed by nature. There is no safe level of exposure of these dangerous chemicals.
How do cigarette butts contribute to water pollution? The chemicals contained in tobacco litter contribute to non-point source pollution when carried through storm drains by rainfall and urban runoff to our lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters, and even our underground sources of drinking water. Non point source pollution has harmful effects on drinking water supplies, recreation, fisheries, and wildlife (Source: www.CigaretteLitter.org ).
How do cigarette butts impact aquatic life? The EPA’s aquatic bioassay studies provide evidentiary conclusion that one cigarette butt per 2 liters of water is acutely toxic to water fleas – a planktonic animal that occupies a critical position in the food chain of aquatic ecosystems by transferring energy and organic matter from algae to higher consumers such as fish. Water fleas are widely used to determine acute toxicity of chemicals in aquatic invertebrates. The toxic chemicals that leach from a cigarettes' cellulose acetate filter and remnant tobacco are a biohazard. 100 percent of the animals died after 48 hours in the concentrations that were equivalent to the chemicals found in two or more used cigarette filters (Source: US EPA, Aquatic Invertebrate Acute Toxicity Test for Freshwater Daphnids, 1996).
How does cigarette butt litter affect beaches? In 2008, and for more than 20 consecutive years, cigarette butts have ranked as the No. 1 littered item collected in public parks and on beaches during Annual Clean Up Days. Ecologically, sand and dirt on beaches is an essential habitat to many lake dependent species – including egrets, herons, ducks, pelicansand the many more species living on the shores of Clear Lake.
Birds feed on microscopic creatures, diatoms and bacteria found in grains of sand and dirt. Birds often ingest discarded cigarette butts, poisoning their entire systems. According to the UN International Maritime Organization, all birds and local wildlife are affected by tobacco litter causing unnecessary malnutrition, starvation, and death (Source: California Coastal Commission 2008, UN International Maritime Organization 2003).
Twenty seven of the 50 states in the U. S. have communities with outdoor tobacco smoke free ordinances at parks, youth sports, trails and beaches. Smoke-free parks and piers is the only effective way to protect our beautiful county and all residents and visitors, including children, animal and fish.
The Lake County Tobacco Coalition works to educate residents of Lake County about the toxic effects of tobacco use and tobacco litter, youth tobacco product access issues, and cessation programs.
If you would like more information about the coalition, call us at 707-263-7177 or Lowell Grant at 707-263-4235.
Dave and Jeannette Roush are members of the Lake County Tobacco Education Coalition. They live in Lakeport.
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- Written by: Dave and Jeannette Roush
In 2008 the nationally organized “Poetry Out Loud” competition was promoted in Lake County. Poet Laureate Sandra Wade and Lorna Sides circulated the promotional materials throughout our local schools and waited for the enthusiastic students to line up at the announced venues. It was a no show, except for one person. So they had their contest and declared our county winner and sent her off as the Lake County rep to the state level. The local organizers were just a little vague on the level of participation.
There was never a question about following through with the contest. The participant showed up and performed well. That was all that was required. There was no requirement that other students show up. She gained useful experience at the state semifinals while making valuable contacts. Lake County made the cut as a player for showing up also. The publicity encouraged a fuller participation by students this year, with a selection made at an Arts Council event.
As this year brought a successful second year to the “Poetry Out Loud” recitation competition after building on the first year, another contest was sailing into uncharted waters. The regionally advertised “Dream Weaver” playwriting contest was to be run by two Lake County Theater actors in their spare time. This was nothing like a previous playwriting contest promoted nationally with many volunteers. The subject matter was wide open with only technical constraints officially listed.
I saw this as an opportunity to write my first full length play, moving up from skits and short plays. Unlike writers outside the county, I knew something of the judging milieu. The theater board that would anoint a winner tends to favor producing light faire while recoiling from anything with a whiff of avant-garde.
With eyes wide open, I submitted my play “Yellowgrease” with the belief that it would win and be produced only if it were the only functional play before the judges. As this was the first half-hearted year of a regional contest, I knew this was a small but real possibility.
A month after the submission deadline the board took up the contest as an agenda item at their meeting. There was no announcement about what was decided after a week. A month passed – nothing. They did mail their planned upcoming season program but there was no mention of a play from the Dream Weaver contest or even that such a contest ever existed.
Finally, on May 26, one of the two reviewing actors called me because she thought I shouldn’t be left hanging any longer. The verdict was that there were only two functional plays entered that could be produced. Mine was one of them but there was no way they were going to produce it. It was good enough but good enough wasn’t good enough. It was … straaange, and Lake County Theater doesn’t like “strange.” Their solution was to cancel the contest for “lack of participation” without even notifying the contest entrants in writing that there would be no winner and no production. (Contest? What contest? I don’t remember a contest.) I feel those writers who sent in plays in good faith deserve to be treated better. In fact, I would describe the board’s behavior as “artless.”
So what should have been done? At minimum, if they decided that small town economics and values would absolutely prohibit producing the winning play they could have approached the winning playwright thusly:
“All right Shakespeare, you caught us. We gambled that we would get a good romantic comedy or murder mystery in the stack but it didn’t happen. We got you instead. So now you know that this theater community is not open to all types of theater as we led everyone to believe. In many ways we are a much smaller place. Now we have to deal. You want to be the winner? Fine. You’re the winner. Put it on your resume. We’ll alert the media. But we need an out. We will say that we couldn’t find a director that wanted to direct it or not enough actors auditioned for the parts. Since the prize money was coming out of ticket sales, which we won’t have, we will credit you as a life member in our theater company instead. Good luck shopping your play in the big city.”
See how easy it could have been? Apparently the goodwill of local writers is not something the Lake County Theater Co. values very highly. So be it. I will be signing up with online services for playwrights anyway. However, I will require that future contests by LCTC fully disclose their genre limitations to prospective entrants or I will.
Dante DeAmicis lives in Clearlake. To see an outtake from his play, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ND0IMcl9BA.
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- Written by: Dante DeAmicis
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