22964.
(a) Studies published in the peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Control estimate the percentage of smokers who litter to range from 75 percent to 92 percent, for smokers between 21 and 25 years of age. It is estimated that 845,500 tons of cigarette butts become litter around the globe each year.(b) Cigarette butts have consistently been the single most-recovered item since collections began among volunteer groups, including the Ocean Conservancy and its International Coastal Cleanup event, which cleans litter in waterways, beaches, and parks in this state.
(c) Although the citation rate for littering cigarette waste is annually about five times that of general litter from vehicles, as reported in the Department of Motor Vehicles’ citation statistics, cigarette butts remain at the top of the list for litter on our highways.
(d) The Department of Transportation has estimated the costs to clean up cigarette butts at forty-one million dollars ($41,000,000) annually.
(e) The City and County of San Francisco has estimated costs for city abatement of cigarette butts at over six million dollars ($6,000,000) annually.
(f) From 2006 to 2008, the American Association of Poison Control Centers reported approximately 12,600 cases of children ingesting cigarettes or cigarette butts. Children under six years of age are especially prone to cigarette butt ingestion.
(g) The well-documented and common occurrence of cigarette butt ingestion by domestic animals points to the larger impact that improperly discarded cigarette butts have on our environment and wildlife.
(h) As early as the mid-1960s, the Surgeon General of the United States judged cigarette filters to be useless in reducing harm to the average smoker.
(i) Banning the sale, gift, or other furnishing of cigarettes utilizing single-use filters is necessary to keep toxic litter out of our state’s environment and promote the health and safety of our state’s residents.