Undoubtedly, water is the most precious natural resource on our planet. Besides other pollutants smokers are adding to the pollution of waterways throughout the world. Smokers leave the shorelines and waterways with millions of cigarettes, and their filters which later on end up in the waterways.
Cigarettes and their filters have topped the list of trash items in the last year’s annual international coastal cleanup. Some 350,000 volunteers from sixty-eight countries came forward and participated in the daylong cleanup last September to remove 7 million pounds of debris from 34,500 miles of coastlines and waterways, along with ocean, river and bottom of the lakes.
From the 7 million pounds of waste that was taken out last year, cigarettes and cigarette butts accounted for roughly 1.9 million. This figure of cigarettes has topped the list for the sixth consecutive year. The second number was of food wrappers (768,000 ) and containers that contributed to the pollution and could be extremely dangerous to wildlife.
Sonya Besteiro, the cleanup project manager for 2006 said:
A plastic sandwich bag floating in the ocean may look like a jellyfish, a favorite food of sea turtles. If a sea turtle ingests a plastic bag it may feel full and stop eating, which results in starvation. Or the bag could block the animal’s digestive system and cause death.
During the cleanup process in 2006, the volunteers found 1,074 animals that were caught in debris, including fishing line and nets. From these entangled animals only a female seal found in Hobe Sound survived.
About 1 million sea birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles are killed each year by the discarded fishing gear and plastic debris.
This year the annual international coastal cleanup is set up for September 15.
Source: Discovery