Ashtrays encourage congregated smoking areas. I agree that no-smoking policies are the best option, but not just at entrances. I saw butts littered for a 1/2 block on George alone!

my point was that you are NOT going to get people to quit smoking in the next few weeks and litter will continue to accumulate. Last I checked it is illegal to ban smoking on a public sidewalk, exceptions are at building entrances.

Maybe you would be better off picking them up than complaining about it.

Wow, being called a moronic complainer all in one thread. Jeesh, guess I won't be use this format again anytime soon. Thought the dialogue was more positive on this forum. My bad.

Alycia
You state that smokers should throw cigarette butts into a garbage can. Why would anyone do that? You don't want ashtrays installed and yet want it to be stopped or cleaned up. I'm confused.

What would your solution/suggestion be. Your not going to be able to keep people from smoking.

Alycia, I'm sorry if I offended you, but it is a basic piece of common sense to not put anything that's burning into a garbage can. Perhaps I am wrong, but I imagine most people would rather have some annoying litter than, you know, fires erupting all over downtown New Haven.

Using SCF to complain about stuff like this is valid and fair; it's merely your suggested solution that I think people have a problem with.

Would folks be interested in contributing to pay for a few smoker relief stations around the campus?

Actually, it's generally recommended to throw completely extinguished cigarettes into a garbage can, rather than providing ashtrays throughout campus. It's also considered safer than throwing a lit cigarette onto the ground. Again, I believe ashtrays promote congregated smoking and indirectly promotes smoking. That's just my perspective. (I happen to do some work in the smoking cessation field.)

However, having one or two designated smoking areas is an option -- with an ashtray in each of the locations (rather than randomly placed throughout campus).

It's also quite common for campuses to go smoke-free. And, it is possible to ban smoking on sidewalks. A special ordinance was passed by the City allowing Yale New Haven Hospital to ban smoking on all sidewalks surrounding Yale New Haven Hospital. (Of course, this is mostly b/c it's a major health-care institution.) Another option is to have an anti-cigarette litter campaign -- ads posted around the campus.

So, there are many options. None moronic, many employed by towns and cities across the country.

FYI, my husband is a smoker and he extinguishes his cigarettes completely, stores them in an empty cigarette box, and throws them away when he gets to a trash can. It's unrealistic to expect everyone to do this, but it can be done!

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Most smokers do not care about littering. I always extinguish my cigarettes and put them back in my pack to dispose of properly.
Fining a litterbug is not a bad idea...

The issue of cigarette butts and litter is actually a fascinating one and I have given it some thought.

Because we were once a nation of smokers, somehow, cigarette butts became exempt from the concept of litter.

As a result, smokers who would not dream of littering -- and I mean really, not ever litter -- would throw cigarette butts on the ground. Honestly, they didn't consider it litter.

I find that rather intriguing and have mused on it enough to even consider a campaign on it.

I would like to do a campaign that says 'cigarette butts are litter' and I wanted to do a collection drive for empty mint tins -- like the tins Altoids come in. I then wanted to make these recycled tins available to smokers in a bin in some public place. They make excellent portable ashtrays. (maybe Gateway would be a good spot to do that.)

But the main key to changing this is to undo this weird psychological thing where cigarette butts are not considered litter. It just takes broadcasting that 'cigarette butts are litter' over and over.

That isn't going to stop litterers who smoke from throwing butts but it will stop non-litterers from doing so -- I know, nuts, but it is true. There was a time when most of our culture operated on that concept.

I am, unfortunately, a relapsed smoker myself and I don't throw butts. It is disgusting. If I am on the street, I put them out thoroughly then throw them in the trash.

after reading all the comments it occurred to me the origin of the exception is obvious -- people threw butts on the ground because they were on fire and could cause fires in trash cans. Duh.

But that is solved by putting the thing out really thoroughly.

In the beginning cigarettes didn't have filters either, so they just sort of disintegrated. No longer.

Another issue concerning cigarette butts:
They contain poison. When it rains or snows the poison seeps into the earth.
Does this not affect our drinking water in the end? Point to ponder...

Yes, but it probably beats anti-depressants which everyone is on and even take when they quit smoking to help them quit. lol.

Those are in our water supply and in our fish - all kinds of pharmaceuticals. So, we could all go crazy if we get too crazy over this stuff. Not kidding about the pharmaceuticals in fish. And we don't know yet how to filter it out in our water treatment plants.

So, there's no smoking around the hospital, but there are plenty of pharmaceuticals going in our water supply in that place. Not to mention the Pfizer drug trial lab. And then everyone's toilet who is on drugs is carrying drugs to the water and the plants can't filter it out

Tobacco is a carcinogen but not sure the ash is. I think the ash might be more harmless. Who knows what is in those filters.

If someone gave me the choice of more smokers or more people on psychiatric drugs, I would choose smokers

Do people get cancer from well water near tobacco fields? I have never heard of that. I wonder

Oh gosh. I opened ip a huge csn of worms.
Cigarettes contain hundreds of chemicals including arsenic
It's all in the filter.
I am not comparing it to all the other chemicals and drugs out there. Now that we're on the subject, wow, we could lose our minds thinking about it. What about people with HIV just using the toilet!
I had enough for tonight....

No. People do not get cancer from tobacco plants. It's the carcinogen when smoke combined with all the poison added, that causes cancer.
Tobacco is a plant and has been grown all over the world for centuries.

When cigareet butts are tossed on the ground, they end up in the street drains and, ultimately (am I correct?) our waterways. As mentioned above, they are not harmless. People don't smoke the cigarettee all the way to the filter, so all of the artificitally added chemicals remain. In addition, the filter is made from plastic, and most people know the extremely long time that takes to break down! Butts are definitely litter, and it would be nice to see smokers take responsibility for disposing of them appropriately, such as in small metal tins, then the trash, also mentioned above, rather than carelessly tossing them on the ground. When I was growing up, at least people would put them out with their shoe; now I often see them carelessly tossed aside while still lit.

I would think that smoker relief stations shouldn't necessarily be crowdsourced by local citizens, since it's really the responsibility of the school to keep its grounds clean. Although that would probably be a more direct approach to getting this change to happen, it might also be worth bringing to the attention of the school maintenance staff or whoever is responsible for budgeting the funding for maintanence, and allocating the funding from that area.

Lastly, if this is occurring too close to the entrances, as much as it would not be fun to be the police officer held with the responsibility of this, I would not oppose enforcing any statutes recommending distances to entrance of public buildings to discourage congregations of people, as this is probably not fun for anyone who does not smoke who is leaving the building.

It's true that this forum should be considered a place for constructive criticism.

Good Call LS,
Maybe you could find an email for building maintenance and you could create a custom watch area for them just around the campus buildings.

Well then people. Here is your answer.

Robert Lyons
Maintenance Supervisor
203-285-2440
rlyons@gatewayct.edu

And they have a rather confusing maintenance request form.
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzVqoYBvcAZQaG9iX3dfcFZ6RW8

Probably an emil to both RLyons and Joe Prince, jprince@gwcc.commnet.edu will get it done.

First one to send it gets 1000 civic points. How's that?
We can test their response time. Granted it's Thanksgiving and this is probably the last thing on most peoples' minds.

Nice work. I bet they'll be responsive. The new campus seems really well maintained otherwise.

GCC put some ashtrays near the entrances. There's still litter and this encourages smoking near the doorways. Not a great solution but certainly better.

get a life. all of you

Closed this on 5/10; someone else re-opened. Not sure why.