Pretty sea shells, smooth round stones and the furry sea-balls that come from Neptune grass all make great embellishments for sand castles. But not cigarette butts. That’s why, in Santa Eulària des Riu, we have established the first smoke-free beach in the Balearics. Because, at the seashore, nobody wants to breathe in noxious fumes, the only welcome smoke is that wafting off a charcoal grill…
The municipality of Santa Eulària des Riu is the first in the Balearic Islands to endorse a smoke-free beach for its citizens and visitors, created with the aim of providing the most pleasant and healthful seaside experience possible. At present, the smoke-free beach in our municipality is the Santa Eulària in-town beach, a sandy stretch ideal for families and travellers with reduced mobility. Not allowing smoking on the beach brings two important benefits. The first is airborne in that it reduces bathers’ exposure to cigarette smoke, thus supporting sensitive individuals such as children, the elderly and expecting mothers. The second safeguards the land and sea in that it prevents the accumulation of cigarette butts on the beach and keeps them from being washed into the sea where they do great harm to the marine ecosystem.
Smoking on the beach spoils holidays because…
– Small children play with cigarette butts out of curiosity and may even put them in their mouths due to their natural exploratory instinct.
– Cigarette butts pop up everywhere. They have become one of the most common and persistent types of beach waste as it takes roughly 10 years for them to disintegrate.
– The sand and water become polluted with the 4,000 chemical substances contained in cigarette tobacco.
– Cigarette butts and their chemical components have been found in the stomachs of marine species such as fish, cetaceans, birds and turtles. The toxic damage emitted by this waste is such that one cigarette butt submerged in a litre of water in which little fish are swimming will kill half of them in only 96 hours.
