FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Local governments now have the ability to ban smoking on Florida Beaches. The Florida Legislature passed the bill in March and Governor DeSantis just signed it into law Friday.
Fernandina Beach leaders are now one step closer to banning cigarettes on its beaches.
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A proposal passed the first of three reading Tuesday night after several people spoke out against the measure. Some people in Fernandina beach are upset over a plan to ban smoking on public beaches.
“I’m not saying that smoking is a healthy thing -- I am not making an argument that anyone should or should not do it -- but it is a personal choice,” one woman said during a city council meeting. “If we ban smoking, are we also banning marijuana? Cigars? Pipes? Vapes? Or is it just cigarettes?”
The city’s mayor said the ban is needed to protect people’s health and keep cigarette butts off the beach. As many as 2.5 million cigarette butts are collected on beaches worldwide each year.
Ocean Conservancy, the nation’s oldest marine conservation non-profit organization, was a big advocate for achieving this effort.
The director of Florida Conservation at Ocean Conservancy said protecting wildlife is the top priority.
Cigarette butts add to the microplastics problem, the most pervasive form of plastic pollution that impacts wildlife. The butts are made of tightly packed plastic fibers that erode into smaller bits, which accumulate in fish and other organisms. This not only impacts animal health and reproductivity, but also human health when people consume sick fish.
For the past 31 years and counting, cigarette butts have been the most commonly found item on Florida beaches during Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup.