40 Rivers to Freedom posted a link outlining the toxic hazards of cigarette butts to fish and how researchers in San Diego want filter tipped cigarettes classified as toxic waste.

I hadn’t considered my use of foul smelling cheap cheroots as “green” – but now I’ll get to blow smoke rings and claim the moral high ground.

Everyone knows cigarette smokers are filthy creatures…

On the other hand, it begs the question “what kills whom the quickest,” as this might be self regulating. My perverse side insists that us disgusting, weed-burning, pre-cancerous litterbugs, mince about with little dog crapper bags – blushing while we stoop to capture the nasty…

Then I realize how that’ll play in the cheap seats, lending itself to more of the effete, snobbery label – which most of us despise.

For those stalwarts fishing the chemical backwater it’s essential equipment akin to wading staff or vest. A snap of the fingers and the coal of my toxic cheroot arches into the milky water ahead – if there’s no corresponding mushroom cloud or fireball – I know it’s safe to wade.

I am amused at the vitriol of even the tiniest of transgressions. Witness what transpires in a forgotten and filthy watershed, and after you’ve crapped in the creek and tossed your empty polyethylene water bottle to bob in my currents – do you really have the right to claim my cigarette butt is the root of all evil?

We’re so concerned about the symptoms – we’ve long since forgotten the problem.

SDSU Public Health Professor Tom Novotny and other members of the Cigarette Butt Advisory Group plan to recommend that filtered cigarette butts should have new requirements for disposal.

Nice. Now that you’ve settled the issue, why not focus on dead cars, leaking chemical drums, and the medical waste next to that flaccid ciggy?