Heading into the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, if you plan on going to Miami Beach leave your cigarettes at home because it is now illegal to smoke on the beach and in parks.
Those caught will be cited and fined, but the city said that’s not what this is about. It’s about keeping the beaches and wildlife, healthy and clean.
“They’re (cigarette butt) not just an eye sore but the toxicity and it damages sea life, it damages the natural life and it’s a danger to the people and animals,” said Mayor Dan Gelber.
If you violate this new law, you get a $100 violation for the first offense and a $200 violation for the second offense. You could possibly also face arrest.
“This isn’t about giving fines or doing arrests this is about compliance driven behavior. If you didn’t know it was illegal to smoke cigarettes in Miami Beach we want you to know now,” said Miami Beach commissioner Alex Fernandez.
The problem is the tiny plastic fibers in the cigarette butts that accumulate in fish and other wildlife, hurting seabirds, sea turtles, and more.
“Cigarette butts have microplastics and toxic chemicals that are bad for the environment and we want to prevent those from making their way into the sand,” said Fernandez.
The marine nonprofit Ocean Conservancy said cigarette butts have been the most commonly recovered item during three decades of its annual International Coastal Cleanup.
“Manatees are dying at an unprecedented rate in Florida over the past two years. When they die, we actually examine them to see what killed them and through those, we found plastic debris in 70 percent of those animals,” says Ocean Conservation Florida Director J.P. Brooker.
In the new ordinance, smoking is defined as “inhaling, exhaling, burning, carrying, or possessing any lighted tobacco product, including cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, and any other lighted tobacco product with the exception of unfiltered cigars.”
The ban also does not include cigars or vapes, solely cigarettes because their filters are not biodegradable.
Source: CBS News
