Westside : NO SMOKING
While the danger cigarettes pose to humans is well known, a Marina del Rey conservation organization will highlight the hazard of cigarette butts on the environment and ocean wildlife by launching “Operation Kick Butt,” activists announced Tuesday.
The plan by Santa Monica BayKeeper calls for volunteers to focus on picking up cigarette butts as part of the Earth Day cleanup April 20. The butts should then be mailed to the Tobacco Institute in Washington to show the industry that “people do not want to live or swim in their pollution,” said Terry Tamminen, head of BayKeeper.
Fish, birds, sea turtles and seals often eat the butts, with cigarette filters sometimes choking the creatures, he said.
Almost 43,000 butts were removed from county beaches on Earth Day 1994, Tamminen said. . . .
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