Coastal Cleanup targets one cigarette at a time

Saturday's event will mark the 20th anniversary of the annual international Coastal Cleanup Day. Its organizer, the Ocean Conservancy, encourages volunteers around the world to spend a day at their local beach cleaning up trash people have dumped on the shores. Upwards of 80 percent of marine pollution comes from land activities, according to the Conservancy.

Last year's cleanup revealed 315,000 cigarette butts buried in California beaches, accounting for the vast majority of rubbish collected statewide.

"In the five years I've worked at the cleanup day, cigarette butts are the number one debris item that we found," said Gregg Schmidt, media manager at the Conservancy.

An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarettes are littered annually, making cigarettes the number one source of litter in the United States and worldwide.

Assemblyman Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, presented a bill earlier this year attempting to ban smoking on state-owned beaches and provide a $100 fine for infractions. The bill was shut down in the state Senate.

"What people need to understand is that a lot of the rubbish that we leave on the beach is not biodegradable - it's going to be on coastline for a long time to come," said Yee, whose district includes San Francisco and Daly City.

"Cigarette filters do not break down and they contain over 200 toxins that are detrimental to humans and marine life. Plastic and cans, tires, appliances; so much of the refuse of society that is left on beaches is just absolutely not going to go away," said Yee.

Yee expressed concern that beach pollution is not only dangerous but carries long-term repercussions.

"Some would argue that people come to California to see the coast, otters and whales. There's something to be said for that, but for me it is more the concept of our environment - once you degrade it and lose that pristine environment it's hard to get it back," said Yee.

"Just look at how much money we are spending on cleaning up pollution; we can't let it be degraded, because it's so hard and so expensive to get it back to what it used to be," Yee added.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, also authored a bill to ban smoking, though his targeted all California public beaches and would have levied a steeper $250 fine against smokers.

"Mr. Yee had a little different approach; at the last minute he was going to amend his bill to allow smoking areas," said Teresa Stark, Koretz's chief of staff.

"[But we believed] this wasn't going to be effective, that it wasn't going far enough," said Stark.

Koretz's bill was approved by the Senate Natural Resources committee but nonetheless was blocked in a 19-13 vote largely split along party lines, with Democrats in favor.

Neither bill drew any arguments in opposition on the record, though supporters believe there were forces at work behind the scenes. A spokesman from Phillip Morris USA, the nation's largest tobacco company, spoke out against the bill.

"Most definitely it was the tobacco lobby that caused the defeat of our bill," said Yee. "There was nothing on record, but the handwriting was there."