HAZARDOUS LITTER

Liz Spangler says cigarette butts can be a health and environmental hazard.

The vice-president of the P.E.I. Women’s Institute, which holds an annual roadside cleanup across P.E.I., says cigarette butts can take up to 10 years to decompose. As well, their filters are designed to protect people from its harmful toxins.

“So not only is it something that’s slow to degrade, but it absorbs all the toxins left from the cigarette and it’s left there,” says Spangler, who also taught at the Atlantic Veterinary College with a focus on epidemiology.

A littered butt still contains much of those toxins, meaning they could seep into the ground or be washed into a stream, harming the environment around it, she said. “It’s a biohazard. I mean that’s why it causes cancer.” Spangler and the institute’s cleanup volunteers always find cigarette butts along P.E.I.’s roads. She thinks littering them is an unconscious decision for most people. “Cigarette butts are the worst because they’re so small. In terms of people’s awareness,” she said. “(People) need to understand it doesn’t belong there.”

She lives on a rural, clay road in Hazel Grove, and she often sees people driving there and dumping their ashtrays on the roadside and sometimes in the nearby pond, she said.

She’d like to see more ashtrays or litter containers throughout cities, as well as campaigns to educate the public on this form of litter.

“Not to ban (smoking), but to inform people of the health hazards,” she said.