The Impact of Commercial T obacco in Outdoor
Environments: Implications for Chula Vista
G E O R G E . M AT T, P H D
LY D I A G R E I N E R , D R P H
T H O M A S E . N O V OT N Y, M D
C E N T E R F O R
TO B A C C O A N D T H E E N V I R O N M E N T
C T E . S D S U. E D U
C I T Y C O U N C I L M E E T I N G
C H U L A V I S TA , C A
M AY 6 , 2 0 2 5
Center for T obacco & the Environment (CTE)
Center Established by San Diego State University in 2022 • Impact of commercial tobacco on the environment
Indoor: homes, cars, hotels, schools, workplaces
Outdoor: sidewalks, malls, neighborhoods, parks, beaches, rivers, ocean California Collaborative Consortium on Thirdhand Smoke • Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; San Diego State University; Universities of California: Irvine, Riverside, San Francisco; University of Southern California University of California Office of the President
• California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (Prop 99, Prop 56) California Department of Public Health
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) National Institute of Health/
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH/NIEHS) World Health Organization (WHO)
2 Research Collaborations with
Community Organizations & Businesses
Hospitality industry
Real estate and housing industry
AB 455 – disclosure, transparency, consumer education residential real estate transactions (AM Ortega) Rental car industry: disclosure, transparency
Pre-owned vehicle sales: disclosure, transparency, testing Casinos and tourism: Tribal Nations (La Jolla, Win-River) Restaurant industry: smokefree outdoor dining
Tobacco Product Waste: Environmental and Neighborhood Organizations San Diego County: tobacco product pollution – accumulation & re-accumulation Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Preserve: stormwater discharge polluted with tobacco smoke toxicants
Local and state government
Sharing technical expertise, data, and information with elected officials and staff 3 Filter Facts
4 Cigarette filters are:
• Single-use plastic waste
• Made from cellulose acetate plastic, with ~15,000 fibers in each filter • A source of microplastics
• Leach toxic pollutants into the environment, including nicotine and carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines
• Marketing tool to make it easier and more attractive to start smoking for young people and women
• Defective Product:
• Filters absorb only a fraction of tobacco smoke pollutants • Inhaling through a filter requires higher air pressure • Forces tobacco smoke pollutants deeper into the lung
• Have no net health benefits
• Lack warning labels about single - use plastic, leaching, or proper disposal Filter Facts
5 Impact
• Globally: 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are discarded. End-to-end, these cigarette butts would circle planet Earth at the equator 7.8 times every day. • California: In 2015, the State Water Resource Board adopted the “Trash Amendment” for the Water Quality Control Plan for the Ocean Waters of California. Municipal stormwater trash implementation programs:
• Permittees must prevent any object >5 mm (1/4 inch) from entering the stormwater system (cigarette butts: 1 inch)
• Final compliance is required no later than December 2030. • But what about locally?
Collecting Tobacco Product Waste in
Chula Vista
The Tobacco Product Waste Reduction Project
Locations of 60 census blocks representing
the eight largest cities in San Diego County
Eight largest cities in San Diego County
Randomly selected 60 census blocks across the eight
cities to represent different types of land use
Recruited and trained volunteers to conduct tobacco
product waste surveys
Mapped, photographed, categorized, and picked up
tobacco product waste at two time points
Created census block maps of tobacco product waste
Identified factors that contribute to tobacco product waste Project Overview
Tobacco Product Waste by Type on One
Census Block in Chula Vista
8 Round 1: 1,110 items Round 2: 623 items
94%
Multi-Use
Items
Tobacco
Products &
Packaging
Cigarette
Butts Only
Representative of Eight San Diego County Cities
San Diego County
Chula Vista
Cigarette
Butts Only
Tobacco
Products
and
Packaging
96%
11 Projections based on actual counts for
the 8 largest cities in the county
Cigarette butts in all 16,000 census blocks at one time? • 9.2 million across the 8 largest cities
How quickly do they re-accumulate?
• every 1-2 months
=> 1 month re-accumulation: 110 million/year
=> 2 month re-accumulation: 55 million/year
Publicly accessible areas of 60 census blocks were surveyed • 18% of all public areas were surveyed
Number cigarette butts per year across 100% of public areas =>275 million to 550 million
How Much T obacco Product Waste is
There in San Diego County?
12 Our sample of census blocks in Chula Vista is
too small to calculate accurate estimates for Chula Vista.
However, we can estimate the number of
discarded butts in Chula Vista from its population:
Total pop (2023): 275,487
Adult pop (75.3%): 207,442
% Adults who smoke: 11.0%
# Adults who smoke: 22,891
Smoking rate: 6-10 cigarettes/day
# cigarettes/year: 49,972,708 (6/day) to 99,945,416 (10/day) Discard %: 33.3% 16,657,553 butts to 33,314,806
Discard %: 66.7% 33,314,806 butts to 66,623,615
Note: Youth <18 years and visitors who smoke are not included.
How Much T obacco Product Waste is
There in Chula Vista, CA?
Possible Approaches…
13 Litter Abatement
Fee
(e.g., San Francisco)
Ban Sale of Filtered
Cigarettes
(e.g., Santa Cruz)
Pass a Resolution
(e.g., Santa Cruz)
Cigarette Butt
Return Program
Education at
Point of Sale
Community
Clean-Ups
(e.g., San Diego)