Santa Cruz County in California has officially adopted a ban on the sale of filtered cigarettes and cigars in unincorporated areas, a move intended to reduce litter on the beaches.

Under the new law, for which enforcement does not begin until Jan. 1, 2027, stores will be subject to a temporary suspension of their tobacco licenses if they are found selling filtered cigarettes or cigars. Smoking filtered tobacco products remains legal.

“This is the most ubiquitous piece of trash you can find on the beaches,” said former Democratic Assemblymember Mark Stone at the Oct. 8 meeting. It’s been difficult to pass such a ban at the state level for political reasons, not practical ones, he told supervisors.

“The filter itself is a lie,” added Stone. “The tobacco industry has been perpetuating a marketing lie for decades, because the filter produces no better health outcomes at all than a filterless cigarette.”

The first public commenter on Oct. 8 followed Stone, and suggested the county focus not on the banning of filters, but instead on punishing those who litter. “I think people should get a $1,000 fine for littering. With all the surveillance technology, all that stuff’s being witnessed,” said James Ewing Whitman, who said he is a smoker.

Nearly one in four pieces of litter collected at beaches in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary is part of a cigarette, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study conducted from 2017 to 2021.

“Cigarette butts were the single largest trash item counted during beach cleanups,” the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary wrote in a report provided to the Board of Supervisors.

The filters, attached to most commercial cigarettes, contain a plastic called cellulose acetate, which laboratory studies have shown to be toxic.

“In addition to adding microplastics to the environment, hazardous chemicals from tobacco smoke that are trapped in the filters leach into water and soil,” said Georg E. Matt, co-director of the Center for Tobacco and the Environment at San Diego State University, in an Oct. 10 statement. “Cigarette filters have no health benefits to smokers; they just make it easier to get people addicted and keep them addicted.”

With the passage of the law, Santa Cruz County became the only county in the nation that has banned the sale of filtered cigarettes, according to nonprofit organization Action on Smoking and Health. Although the Los Angeles County cities of Manhattan Beach and Beverly Hills have outlawed the sale of all tobacco products.

The World Health Organization has recommended governments weigh bans on cigarette filters. Lawmakers in Belgium and the Netherlands have considered such laws, and in recent years, bills have been put forth in some U.S. states, such as California and New York, to do the same.

The Santa Cruz County ordinance was introduced by Supervisors Justin Cummings and Manu Koenig. The Epoch Times reached out to Cummings, a local tobacco retailer, and others, but did not receive a response.