Having recently read an article about the consequences of cigarette butt littering, it burns my butt (no pun intended) to see smokers casually throwing them out of car windows or anywhere they see fit. Much attention is given to littering and polluting in general, but we hear little about the serious consequences of cigarette butt litter.
Aside from their unsightliness, cigarettes contain dangerous chemicals such as arsenic, vinyl chloride, acetone, mercury, hydrogen cyanide and lead. These chemicals end up in our groundwater, lakes, rivers and, eventually, in the ocean.
It takes only seconds to strip and pocket a used filter. I challenge all current and former smokers to help clean up our mess. Neither society nor the environment deserve to live with our old butts for years to come. Let's all become just a little litter bitter. Together we can make a difference.
Dave Rand, Minneapolis
