CIGARETTE BUTTS AND OUR WATER About 4.5 trillion are littered annually worldwide. A cigarette butt littered on land is not just a terrestrial problem: a strong rain will wash that butt into the storm drains and straight into the water system. As the Earth's population slowly becomes aware of the crisis facing the planet, the cigarette epidemic is gaining notice. Organizations like the Surfriders in California have long tried to clean up cigarette litter from the beaches along the west coast. Cleaning up cigarette litter on a beach is often a frustrating task. One beach clean-up group, the Sand Sifters of Boynton Beach, FL, finds that picking up cigarette butts takes up most of their time. "During a monthly cleanup, we collect four to FIVE THOUSAND cigarette butts in one day," Founder Gary Solomon said.!!!!! That is just one small stretch of beach. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of miles of shoreline worldwide and the enormity of the problem starts to take shape. Cigarette butts are not just a benign annoyance. They are made from toxic chemicals. Surfrider.org listed the dangerous ingredients found in a cigarette butt: Arsenic: a pesticide that causes diarrhea, cramps, anemia, paralysis and malignant skin tumors. Acetone: It's one of the active ingredients in nail polish remover. Lead: Lead poisoning stunts growth, causes vomiting, and causes brain damage. Formaldehyde: causes cancer, can damage lungs, skin, and digestive systems. Embalmers use it to preserve dead bodies. Toluene: highly toxic, commonly use as an ingredient in paint thinner. Butane: highly flammable butane is one of the key components in gasoline. Cadmium: cause damage to the liver, kidneys and brain, and stays in the body for years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ammonia: causes individuals to absorb more nicotine, keeping them hooked on smoking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Benzene: found in pesticides and gasoline. All of the chemicals seep out of the cigarette butt almost immediately after it comes into contact with water. Cigarette smokers appear to believe that tossing their butt out of their car window, snubbing it out on the sidewalk and throwing it into the storm drains are not littering. Perhaps smokers believe that cigarette butts are made of biodegradable cotton. Such is not the case. The butts are made from Cellulose Acetate. The fiber takes years to break down, but it never fully biodegrades. [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B]1/21/2007 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 128 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,560 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $572.16 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 16 [B]Hrs:[/B] 21 [B]Mins:[/B] 30 [B]Seconds:[/B] 40