COM 0972.001 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ryan Marvick July 16, 2006 Age: 14; Going into 9w Grade P.O. Box 872 Captain Cook, HI 96704 323-2230 Rvanmmna Hawaii.mcom The West Hawaii Fisheries Youth Council is currently trying to form a law to ban smoking on beaches in Hawaii. We have countless reasons for wanting to ban smoking on beaches, two of the reasons are that it causes pollution, and is also harmful to other non-smokers. Many different things are destroying our coral reefs but the one of the leading causes of coral reef decay is pollution. The children from the West Hawaii Fisheries Youth Council did a beach cleanup at Kahalu'u Beach Park and collected bags full of trash. The most common article of rubbish was cigarette butts. Despite Kahalu'u Beach Park having numerous rubbish bins, smokers just seem to throw their finished cigarettes on the ground making our beautiful beaches into garbage dumps. Eventually those cigarette butts will and have found their way into the water where they pollute the reef. Now when tourists, or anyone for that matter, go swimming they are likely to encounter a cigarette butt. Our beaches are one of the main attractions to tourists, but if they are covered in garbage they will be much less inviting. This could cause a considerable drop in tourism, which is the main business in our economy. Everyone knows that cigarette smoke is harmful not only to the smoker but to anyone around that inhales it. Second hand smoke is responsible for approximately 40,000 deaths in the United States yearly. Cigarette smoke contains 4,000 different chemicals, 43 of which are known to cause cancer. Among those chemicals are Formaldehyde, which is used to preserve dead bodies, Arsenic, which is rat poison, and