So there we were, waiting to turn left at a traffic light. We were just starting our turn when something small and white flies from a passing car and thumps onto our windshield, then proceeds to roll down into the wiper well. I thought to myself "Was that a cigarette? It couldn't have been." The smell of smoke filling the cabin convinced me that yes, it was a cigarette, and yes, it was still burning. We couldn't stop in the middle of the intersection, but as soon as we had a clear space we pulled over and removed the little burning missile. Fortunately no damage was done, other than stinking up the inside of our car, but it was pretty annoying. Someone was very careless, or worse yet, was aiming for our Prius. I try not to be paranoid, but sometimes you feel like a target. It does make you wonder about people. On what planet do they live that it is okay to toss litter from their moving vehicles, let alone burning litter? Furthermore, why do smokers hate to stink up their own cars, so they toss butts out of their windows? Oh well, I'm ranting again. :mad2: Tom
I feel your pain, I hate cigarette smoke! At least there was no damage done, but that's still pretty screwed up that this litter bug feels it's ok to toss his trash out of a moving car...
Okay, I'll fess up! I smoke in my car. However, I have never and will never toss a cigarette out of my car because it is inconsiderate to other drivers who may have their windows open (or may damage another car period). During droughts, I have since inconsiderate smoker's tossing cigarettes out of their cars as well. These inconsiderate smokers seem oblivious to the fact they may cause a fire. Not all smokers are inconsiderate. I do not smoke around non-smokers and I will clean up around the "smoke pit" at work when other careless smokers leave the cigarettes on the ground. To keep my car from smelling of smoke I learned to sit a bowl of vinegar in the car if I don't plan to drive for the day and an old sock filled with unused coffee grounds. Don't want to offend non-smokers whom I might get the opportunity to drive somewhere. BTW, don't smoke with kid in the car though my Dad did when I was growing up.
With smokers' "Rights" being diminished all the time one would think they would be striving to improve the overall image of smoking in general and smokers in particular. You'd think they'd be considerate about their butts, about respecting No Smoking areas, and about respecting non-smokers' "Right" to clean air. But no, what I see is more on the level of retaliation/rebellion against 'The Man'. Around here I can hardly take a drive into the city (Springfield) without seeing at least one person smoking in a car with a child (sometimes restrained, often not) and/or throwing a butt out the window. Not infrequently I'll be able to tell someone's smoking in the car ahead of me just from the smell coming in through the A/C.
When this happens I usually end up next to them at the next light with my windows down and playing the loudest bass CD I can find. I laugh when they have the gall to look over at me all irritated after I just endured their filthy smoke for the last couple miles. My roomate is an officer and a month ago he was sitting at a light with his partner and the car just slightly ahead of them flicked a butt onto the hood of their patrol car. Needless to say the guy was questioned on the spot and told to pull over into the next parking lot AFTER getting out of his car to retrieve the cigarette butt. Everyone else at the light was op2: and .
Bumper sticker: YOU BOUGHT; YOU SMOKED IT; YOU KEEP IT. THE EARTH IS NOT YOUR ASHTRAY. When I see someone flipping a cigarette out their window, I dream of getting out and throwing it back into their car. If only I could use the force to move objects. . .
I saw this done once. Stopped at a red light, I noticed the car next to me in the left lane. The passenger dropped a lit cigarette out his rolled-down window. Behind that car was a big, burly biker with nasty hair and leather vest. He got off his bike, picked up the still burning cig, tossed it in the passenger's lap and said, "I think you dropped something!" Too shocked to do anything, the offending car just sped away at the green light. My opinion of bikers went up a few notches with that episode. I just wish I was a little bigger, burlier, and had more hair so I could get away with that too! Lee
Makes me sooo mad. Seems like everywhere you go, people are just tossing them out their windows like our common ground is there personal trashcan! I caught a dear friend doing it one day and read her the riot act. Her only response: "Well, I don't want it in my ashtray stinking up my car!" I said, "I don't want it everywhere else trashing all that is outside of your car!" They made it against the law here in Florida, but it hasn't seemed to make a difference.
Not only did my dad smoke in the car when I was young, but he scolded me for being impolite if I tried to wave the smoke plume away from my face. He and my step-mother also lit up at the supper table while I was still eating. Fortunately I only had to spend alternate weekends in that house, but those weekends were pure hell. Smoking in the presence of kids is child abuse, and people who do it belong in jail.
Hit by a burning cigarette is one thing. Littering the street with a cigarette butt is another. I don't think cigarette butt litter is any worse than other litter. Yet I sense that posters to this thread take much greater offense at one discarded cigarette butt than ten discarded gum wrappers.
Not the case with me. I look at all litterers with the same disdain. But yes..I can't stand seeing the butts thrown down. But then, I can't stand smoking period.
Possibly, it depends on what kinds of carcinogens may be leached into soils and riparian habitat from those butts vs the gum wrappers. Not all litter is created equal. Same goes for flushing antibiotics (or other prescription drugs) down the toilet vs toilet paper. See where I'm going with this?
I also notice that many smokers who would be aghast at dropping a candy wrapper outside of a trash can seem to have no problem tossing their cigarette butts right on the ground. Our company used to have a couple of really heavy smokers (we're talking two packs a day territory here). They would generally smoke right outside the back door of our building near the stairs. There was literally a pile of discarded butts out there.
Did I hear you right? Your dad and step-mom should have been put in jail? If so, and no offense intended, I think there may be other issues going on here.
Every semester I do a campus clean-up and I pick up litterally (pun intended) hundreds of butts. It's pretty sickening to see some students and faculty get bent out of shape when we propose a "smoke-free" campus by 2010.
Welll, I wouldn't want my mom jailed, but she used to smoke in the car and would get mad at us for trying to crack the windows. She also would smoke at the dinner table and make the whole family sit in the smoking section. I think that knowing what she knows now, she wouldn't behave that way if she had it to do over again. Fortunately, she no longer smokes. It was funny - as an adult, I started standing up to her about the smoking in certain situations. For example, when we would go out to eat, I would beat her to the podium in the restaurant and say, "Non-smoking." It would annoy her, but I would say, "Well, none of us smoke, but you are okay with going up to the podium and requesting that we all sit in smoking. I figured I could just as easily choose for us all if you could." I always hated that the whole family had to sit in the smoking section because of her habit. I thought it was selfish of her. Sadly, many addicted folks lose sight of such things, however. I'm so glad she quit - for her health and for us all. When I visit her now, my clothes, the lining of my suitcase, the inside of my purse, and my hair no longer smell like smoke when I leave...
We (Mecklenburg County) have a swat-a-litterbug program where you can report the license plate, date, time, and place of a car that litters. I keep a notepad and a pencil in my under-console drawer to record the details. The registered owner of the car supposedly gets a letter in the mail with a free trash container. 99.99% of the time, the litter I see is a smoldering cigarette butt.
