Smoking on beach prohibited

[happy2fish]

Surfside Beach the 5,000-resident town south of Myrtle Beach is prohibiting smoking on the beach starting Oct. 1.According to Surfside Beach Councilwoman Judy Tuttle says “An amendment was added to ban smoking on the beach after residents clamored for it”.

Dan Burger, a Charleston-based spokesman for the state’s office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management states, “Cigarette butts are the No. 1 pollutant of S.C. beaches and can be dangerous to turtles and fish that ingest the filters. The filters are 97 percent plastic.

During the International Coastal Cleanup of S.C. beaches and estuaries in 2005, volunteers picked up nearly 29,000 cigarette butts and more than 2,000 cigar tips.

If you are caught smoking by police on Surfside Beach after September first you can expect a warning, after that, a $100 fine.

Some smoking and civil liberty advocates are feeling put out by the town’s decision.

[Steve]

I have no problem with this. But it is a shame it has come to this.
We have only ourselves to blame. Which one of you out there that smokes has not dropped or tossed a cigarette butt?
I am not an anti-smoker, I think people should be able to smoke anywhere they want. What I have a problem with is all the knuckleheads leaving their butts behind.
No pun intended.

I mean come on, how easy is it to put 'em in a can, bucket or whatever?

So? See what happens? In come the laws..

Everyone should leave the beach CLEANER than they found it, period!

[igormothra]

I cringed when they took away the planes(yes I remember when there were ashtrays in the armrests), I hated it when they started taking away the bars, but in all honesty Steve is right. The smokers of the world are to blame if they take away the beach, for the most part. There is the whole "If kids don't see it they won't do it thing" and of course there are the anti-smokers who think that we should have to hide in a closet with the lights out if we want to smoke. So regardless of why , look out smokers the government is going to take away our right to smoke where we want and the tobacco companies are going to make it impossible to quit unless you spend a fortune with the pharmaceutical companies, and the whole time they are all laughing all the way to the bank.