A problem no longer buried in the sand

Polluting the human body -- even killing it -- with cigarettes is one

thing. But there is no need to kill a beach and the life on and

around it with those little burned-out butts that belong in an

ashtray -- not buried in the sand waiting for some coastal clean-up

or a sea creature’s digestive tract.

That’s why, for those who care what washes back into the ocean and

what pollutes our shores, the Newport Beach beach-smoking ban --

passed by the City Council in September that took effect last week --

is something to be cheered.

We applaud the city, which now joins Huntington Beach, San

Clemente and Laguna Beach in banning smoking at beaches. If you have

the urge to light up while on the Newport Beach sand, consider first

that citations for smoking on the beach will carry fines of $100 for

the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third. Police

will phase in enforcement with a 30-day conditioning period,

including warnings.

But the price for using the beach as an ashtray is not only

monetary, and in a Pilot story Friday, a local student reminded us of

that.

“The cigarettes get washed into the ocean, and then the fish eat

them, and we eat the fish .... If you think about it, that’s kind of

disgusting,” said Caroline Wilkinson, a junior at Newport Harbor High

School and the president of the school’s Earth Resource Club, which

nudged the city to adopt the plan. Considering that nicotine is

essentially a poison and also is included in many insecticides, it

seems Wilkinson has a point.

Aside from curbing the environmental, health and aesthetic hazards

of smoking locally, Newport’s ban seems to be part of a trend.

A year ago, Los Angeles city officials introduced a motion to

prohibit smoking at the beach, with council members reportedly noting

that cigarette butts are the most common litter on the state’s

beaches. The Los Angeles council approved the ban earlier this year,

following a similar vote by the Santa Monica City Council.

Perhaps it’s a bit utopian, but the trend in Los Angeles and

Orange counties signifies a happy vision. Maybe someday, the coastal

cleanup volunteers who have tenaciously picked up the loads of

burned-out cigarettes on the sand will find less litter and more sea

shells as they clean up our beaches.