Smoking on the beach.

Sarasota County Commission

December 7, 2007

Dear Commissioners:

I am addressing the issue of smoking on a beach. I believe that smoking on the beach should be banned for many different reasons. These reasons are not only because of the inconvenience, litter, and health hazards, but because as beach is our main source of economy. Ruining it is causing major damage. Therefore, I feel it is imperative that we address this situation as quickly as possible.

Smoking is very hazardous for your health. It endangers the health of not only the smoker, but of all the people around them. People go to the beach to enjoy their vacations, weekends, and just to have fun, but people don’t expect to be bombarded with litter, smoke, and inconvenience. Imagine taking your three year old daughter to the beach to build sand castles, splash in the water, and collect seashells. What if your baby girl walked up to you holding someone’s old disgusting cigarette butt? All of those germs and chemicals are now on your baby and making for a hazardous situation.

Also, smoking causes immense amounts of litter to our beaches. People want to enjoy our precious Florida sand and beaches, yet smokers are allowed to trash our shores and ruin our main source of economy. Few if not any of these beach smokers ever take responsibility to clean up our beaches either. In 2000 a control program for smoking picked up 32 pounds of butts in Sarasota beaches, and butts take 10 years to decompose.

This disgusting habit is destroying our lovely economic beaches. No tourist or local family wants to go to a beach to find litter and a mess. Smoking causes health problems, litters the sand, and causes people to turn their noses away in disgust. I believe that the safety of the children and of our families is in the hands of this law. Smoking should be banned to protect us, our future, and our amazing sunshine state.

Sincerely,