What is the Situation with Cigarette Related Litter ... - Keep Britain Tidy

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public place. The Fire Service does not record the source of outdoor fires because theyare mostly secondary fires, as opposed to primary fires 74 .In dwellings, cigarettes, cigars and pipes were the source of ignition for an average of4,200 fires per year in the UK between 1999 - 2003. The majority of these fires werecaused by the careless disposal of cigarettes 75 . Lit cigarette butts were a contributingfactor to two of Britain’s worst disasters: the Bradford City Football fire in which 40 peopledied in 1985, and the King’s Cross Underground station fire in 1987 when 31 peopledied 76 .While these are very serious impacts, the management of cigarette consumption wasteinside private dwellings and commercial buildings is outside of the scope of this project,which is focusing on outdoor litter in public places.5.4.2 Economic impactsCigarette related litter is costly to clean-up. Much of this cost is absorbed by LocalAuthorities in the form of dedicated cleaning staff (eg answering calls on a telephonehotline, street cleaners). Some indication of this cost is reflected in recent research,which shows that the clean-up of all types of litter (not just cigarette related litter) costsLocal Authorities an average of £124,155 (2004). It is estimated that the clean up costs oflitter incurred across all regions in England is over £340 million per year 77 .In Australia, most Local Councils spend less than AU$5,000 (approximately £2,080) onspecific cigarette littering initiatives per year 78 .Furthermore, cigarette butts can also contribute to blocking and flooding drainagesystems, which can be costly to repair.5.4.3 Social impactsHuman health and aesthetics can be affected by cigarette related litter.5.4.3.1 Ingestion of cigarette butts by childrenIf cigarette butts are ingested by children, vomiting, gagging and lethargy are likely tooccur as a result of nicotine present in tobacco. More severe symptoms (such as limbjerking and unresponsiveness) occur when larger amounts of nicotine are ingested (i.e byingesting either a whole cigarette or three cigarette butts) 79 . It should be noted,however, that in most cases, children are more likely to be exposed to these dangersthrough cigarette consumption waste left around the home of smokers (which is outsidethe scope of this project) rather than littered cigarette butts in outdoor settings 80 , so theseimpacts should be viewed in that context.74 Pers comm., 10 th February 2005, Lyndsey Avery, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister75 Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (March 2005) Fire Statistics United Kingdom, 2003, London76 ENCAMS, Cig Bans Tipped to Cause Litter Crisis (Nov 2005)77 ENCAMS, (2004) Local Environment Quality, A Local Authority Perspective78 Butt Littering Trust (2003) Local Government Butt Littering Survey, http://www.buttlitteringtrust.org/79 Smolinske SC, Spoerke DG, Spiller SK, Wruk KM, Kulig K, Rumack BH Cigarette and nicotine toxicity in childrenHum Toxicol. 1988 Jan;7(1):27-31 Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Centre80 Novotny, T and Zhao, F (1999) Consumption and Tobacco Waste: another externality of tobacco use Tob.Control 8; 75-80Situation Report - Final 16
5.4.3.2 Social disamenitySmokers agree that littered cigarette butts do not look good 81 . Furthermore, as ENCAMShas documented, litter not only lowers the aesthetics of a locality. The prevalence oflitter, together with other environmental crimes, and the maintenance of streetinfrastructure, also contributes to our quality of life 82 . Essentially, ‘litter attracts litter’,which can attract other environmental crimes, sending out a message that people donot care for the environment and that it is acceptable to litter.5.5 Cigarette Litter MonitoringMeasuring the extent of cigarette litter in the environment is important in order tounderstand whether interventions have successfully reduced cigarette related litter.Several monitoring methodologies are described below.5.5.1 The Local Environment Quality Survey of England (LEQSE)Since 2001, the extent of cigarette related litter (i.e including cigarette butts, cigarettepackaging and ignition source – the majority of which is cigarette butts) has beenestimated in England through the annual ENCAMS Local Environment Quality Survey ofEngland (LEQSE).The LEQSE measures the presence or absence of litter in transects at over 12,000 sitesacross England. It also measures the impact of litter and other anti-social behaviouractivity that affects the physical local environment.The latest report showed that cigarette related litter is present on 79% of England’sstreets 83 . This has increased by 16% since measurement began in 2001/02 (Table 2).ENCAMS suspect that this increase is related to a noted rise in cigarette butts littered inthe transects monitored outside of industrial/warehouse/retail sheds. (Which canprobably be attributed to an increase in workplace smoking bans, forcing smokersoutside where there is insufficient butt disposal infrastructure).Table 2: Proportion of transects where cigarette related litter is presentYearCRLpresent(%)Increasesince 2001/02(%)2004/05 79 162003/04 79 162002/03 60 -32001/02 63 -81 ENCAMS (Sept 2005) Cigarette related litter, Stage 2 Debrief82 ENCAMS (2003-04) LEQSE83, ENCAMS (2005) LEQSE 2004-05Situation Report - Final 17
Page 2 and 3: Table of Contents1 Foreward .......
Page 7 and 8: 3 IntroductionCigarette-related lit
Page 9 and 10: 4.1.3 CigarsA cigar is a roll of dr
Page 11 and 12: • Bars/clubs/restaurants - when d
Page 13 and 14: Finally, during the Marine Conserva
Page 15 and 16: 5.3.2 Smokers contextSome smokers,
Page 17: The negative impact of litter on an
Page 21 and 22: 5.5.7 Comments about cigarette litt
Page 23 and 24: • Appeal to reason and considerat
Page 25 and 26: ButtsOut: ButtsOut are suppliers of
Page 27 and 28: uneven (eg cobbled) streets in Irel
Page 29 and 30: a. Design - including volume, allow
Page 31 and 32: 6.3 LegislationLegislation that inf
Page 33 and 34: 6.4 International Management Models
Page 35 and 36: 7 Conclusion and RecommendationsCig
Page 37 and 38: Situation Report - Final 35

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