Australia adopted strict litter laws two years ago. Littering lit cigarette butts or tossing any item from a car is subject to a $200 fine. Stubbed out cigarette butts left on the ground earn the violator a $60 fine. In the first nine months under the new laws, 3,131 offenders paid fines for littering from vehicles—mostly cigarette butts.  Should similar laws be implemented in Canada?  Should it be a provincial or federal responibility?

As a nonsmoker with smoking friends, I advocate that smokers carry one of those portable ashtrays disguised as a kind of small snuffbox.  Carry your butts home with you.

Maybe the tobacco companies could recycle them into nicotine gum and patches.....

It is well known that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer and I dont' actully see the usefulness of the butt.  I mean, it isn't stopping anything going into the lungs.  It might keep miniscule bits of tobacco out of the mouth but why not just do away with the butt end.

Then the cigarette can be smoked to the end, either in a holder or just as far as possible and then dropped .  The rest will erode away quickly.

Lastpointe, you've hit the nail on the head.  I googled an article entitled:

Cigarette filter ventilation is a defective design because of misleading taste, bigger puffs, and blocked vents

L T Kozlowski, R J O'Connor

Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA

To be sure, BIG TOBACCO is a huge lobby backed by mounds of cash.  A chemistry professor at the University of Windsor in the 1960's developed a filter that would remove most of the tar and nicotene.  It was turned down by the tobacco companies.  Are there laws in your jurisdiction regarding the disposal of butts and partially smoked cigarettes?  Should they be made uniform across Canada?  Butts do nothing to deter addiction to nicotene.  Discontinue the cigarette butts altogether and let people smoke the cigarette to the end (like pot smokers do, eh?).  The rest would biodegrade.  (It's tragic to witness 'street people' so addicted that they'll pick up other people's partially smoked cigarettes and try to smoke what remains.) 

Big Tobacco could gather all the butts up and put them in a big spacecraft and launch them into the sun. Mind you, the price of smokes might have to go up. Maybe they could work with those dog owners too lazy to pick up their pet-poop in public places and send the poop off to the sun too... and the junk cars and...

 Given the fact that some people will persist in this disgusting habit

Rather judgemental don't you think ?

I suppose you've led a pure life where have you disposed of your personal vices ?

It is well known that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer

Really ? that's interesting since no one knows what causes cancer if we did we would have a cure by now ... smoking does not CAUSE cancer it may certainly accelerate cancer but cancer is caused by cell division gone wrong among other factors , smoking has become a convienent scapegoat but I suppose sucking in exhaust fumes from cars is okay ..... it's interesting that worldwide smoking has actually gone down but cancer rates have gone UP why is that ?

Ahem (emphasis mine)...

"Cigarette smoking causes 87 percent of lungcancer deaths and is responsible for most cancers of the larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, and bladder" - National Cancer Institute ( http://www.cancer.gov )

"Tobacco smoke contains thousands of chemical agents, including over 60 substances that are known to cause cancer" - NCI

"Smoking tobacco is the main cause of lung cancer." - Canadian Cancer Society ( http://www.cancer.ca )

I could go on.

Wow you really are gullible aren't you  ......

What would happen if, just for example, you took automobile emissions out of the factoring?

It is seldom the case that single causes exist for anything as complicated as cancer.

An enormous factor in the impairment of physical and mental health, and the leading cause of "premature" death, is poverty -- even here in the wealthy, decent democracy of Canada. I think we need to find ways be even-handed in examining things like health risks, be open to multiple causes and more holistic in our approach to underlying causes: we need to address the dis-ease, not the symptoms and the dis-ease is often an issue of social contexts that, given the will, we can change. 

we need to address the dis-ease, not the symptoms and the dis-ease is often an issue of social contexts that, given the will, we can change. 

Cancer is not democratic it just doesn't care / people are taking holistic meds ignoring prescription meds that work cancer has high survivial rates with early detection but you can't fight what is essentially a poision by taking ginko pills

You know what the greatest danger to health and well being is ?

Ironically - Ignorance

 They do fine people for littering here and recently there has been a crackdown.  There are so many ashtrays, I don't know why anyone would place their butts on the ground.  Personally, I think their are too many ashtrays (they are pretty ugly).  My grandma used to take an ashtray with her when she smoked whenever we went to a park or something.

I have fairly bad allergies, and almost always carry kleenex on me, but do not throw them on the ground when I use them.  Cigarette butts are much smaller than kleenex, I don't know why some smokers see the need to throw them on the ground.

Just for a visual.

I know it's hard for many non-smokers to avoid going into condemnation about anything related to that habit/addiction but I will ask you to try, otherwise little will be accomplished.

Regarding the litter of cigarette butts, as has been discussed on a previous thread, we're not the only offenders. I find garbage of all kinds around and about, including that made of paper, plastic, glass and animal feces. My husband severely cut his hand 4 years ago, severing 2 nerves and a tendon on a broken beer bottle in the grass, requiring surgery. He was off work for almost six months. Yes, we need to take a two-pronged approach on litter - first, make disposal easy by having garbage and butts cans available and only then should we take the step of fining people.

Here, in beautiful BC, ashtrays and garbage cans must sully the atmosphere or something because both are hard to find. Therefore, I see lots of these kinds of garbage on the ground. However, having just returned from Halifax, where garbage bins and ashtrays are found on a regular basis, I saw far less of either.

Surely, this didn't all come from those who smoke...

 Motheroffive, I agree that smokers aren't the only ones who litter.  I think that a larger percentage of smokers litter than the general population and that they also litter more frequently; I could be wrong.  I think that some smokers don't see leaving cigarette butts as 'real' littering, so even if they wouldn't throw a cup on the ground they don't think twice about throwing their butts on the ground.

Those are pretty sweeping generalizations, chemgal. I would be interested in seeing a link to some evidence that a larger percentage of smokers litter than the general public. Perhaps some beer drinkers think it's OK to litter and therefore, as a group, they are more likely to litter than others. After all, my husband didn't lose almost half a year of income because of someone's cigarette butt.

I would consider sweeping generalizations to be making a comment like all or even most smokers litter.  I based my opinion on what I see, there are many areas with very little litter other than cigarette butts.

I'm sorry that your husband was injured on a beer bottle.  Some litter has the potential to be more harmful than cigarette butts (eg. broken glass, feces, needles) but I see way more cigarette butts than any other type of litter.

Here's a video for a radio contest involving picking up littered butts

edited: I removed my post

How many butts is the equivalent of an extra large Timmys or starbucks or Second Cup's coffe or iced drinky foamy frothy latte milk a cappa drink with lids, straws and sleeves?  What is the comparable degrable factor of butts to the plastic dring cups and lids?  or chip and cheesie bags?  foil and plastic gum packages and foil wrappers?

Of course, then the argument could be made that a nasty smoking litter bug citizen tosses all that AND butts, so then litters more than the nasty non-smoking litter bug citizen equivalent ... since smoker drink, chew gum and eat...;)

My point is that litter is litter, regardless of the moral overtones of its origins. Treat all of it equally and respond to it evenly. Put garbage cans/butt cans/safe disposal units where they are needed and this problem significantly reduces. Then, bring in disincentives like fines for those who won't make the effort -- evenly across the littering spectrum. It's not about "the" digusting habit of smoking, it's about "the" disgusting habit of littering that seems to afflict people across the spectrum of types of consumption.