Last Saturday, Soroptimists cleaned Jackson Beach, a project that we’ve done every other month for some time now.

We were struck by the number of cigarette butts (filters) that we picked up both on the beach and in the parking lot.

Out of curiosity, I looked to The Tobacco Atlas, the 5th edition in 2014, for information regarding cigarette butts. This Atlas is created by the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Association.

It was stated that in 2014, more than 5.8 trillion cigarettes were smoked, which equates to 1.69-billion pounds of “toxic rubbish.”

Estimates of from 8 months to 10 years for butts to totally disintegrate have been made. The time factor is dependent on the content that make up the butts themselves and the environment in which they were tossed.

As we participate in the Great Island Clean-up (April 18) it’s helpful to remember this from the Atlas: “Internationally cigarette filters (which are generally not biodegradable) are the single-most collected item in beach cleanups. Material that leaches out of these filters is toxic to aquatic life.”

Gay Graham/San Juan Island