Environment campaigners call for beach smoking ban

Volunteers at the Clean Earth Trust pick up on average 33 cigarette butts per beach clean

There are calls for smoking to be banned on beaches in Guernsey after litter pickers lifted nearly 2,500 cigarette butts last year.

The Clean Earth Trust's Marine Litter Report 2024 said after plastic, cigarette butts were the second most common item removed by litter pickers.

The Trust estimated that if fines were issued for every cigarette butt dropped, the penalties would come to £235,220.

The Health Improvement Commission said 61% of islanders it surveyed would support a ban.

Volunteers found 2,476 butts in 2024, with 445 butts picked up in one hour at Les Banques.

Cobo, Belle Greve and Grandes Rocques were the worst offenders for litter from smoking.

Paul Bugden, the trust's policy officer, said Guernsey should follow the lead of France and some parts of the UK by banning smoking on or near beaches.

"People don't realise that cigarette butts contain a lot of toxins and those find their way into the marine environment.

"If you put one cigarette butt into a litre of water, and add saltwater or freshwater fish to that mixture, 50% of that marine life dies.

"So if you imagine a cigarette butt in a rockpool during a low tide, wildlife in those ponds are likely to be harmed, so it's a serious matter."

Lucy Cave, tobacco harm reduction officer at the Health Improvement Commission, said as well as its survey - which found a majority supported a ban - the commission spoke to young people in focus groups.

She said: "They were concerned about the environmental impacts of cigarette butts on beaches and various locations, which will eventually end up in the ocean.

"There was also the safety factor of children running around barefoot who might catch their foot on a stubbed end of a cigarette."

Public Health has declined to comment.