No butts about it: Anti-smoking laws dirtying California beaches

Nation's Restaurant News, June 14, 1999 by Paul King

SAN FRANCISCO -- Because of strict antismoking laws. California restaurants and bars are arguably much cleaner that they've ever been.

But the same cannot be said of the state's beaches, and the California Coastal Commission blames those same smoking regulations.

The CCC recently released a report on its annual Coastal Cleanup Day, which was held last September. Among the items collected by the trashbusters were 333,876 cigarette butts, a 40-percent increase over the number collected during 1997's event.

Becky Steckler, a spokeswoman for the commission, said most of the butts actually come from storm-sewer discharge, which eventually washes up on the beaches.

"As California increases the number of laws requiring smokers to go outside to smoke, it's no surprise that cigarettes continue to be the No. 1 item found discarded on beaches," Steckler told Reuters news service.

Steckler explained that butts disposed of on city streets get swept into the storm sewers and then wash up on the beaches once the storm water makes its way to the ocean.