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In September, volunteers cleaned 170 playgrounds in Switzerland to remove cigarette butts. The figures are impressive. An association is now calling on municipalities to act.
03.12.2024, 17:0203.12.2024, 18:07
Kari Kälin / ch media
Under benches, tables, but also near swings, climbing structures or in sandboxes: cigarette butts are everywhere in Switzerland.
In September, volunteers cleared 170 playgrounds in 69 municipalities and 22 cantons of cigarette butts. The action was organized by the “stop2drop” association, which fights for smoke-free playgrounds throughout the country. Let’s start with some good news: a playground in Bern, one in Stans and one in Sion did not have a single cigarette butt.
Disappointing results
Overall, the results of the collection campaign are however disappointing. On average, there were 91 cigarette butts on playgrounds. This is fourteen more than during the last clean-up action in 2022. Only three facilities had no cigarette butts. Some playgrounds were completely littered with trash.
Volunteers found 686 cigarette butts at the Froschpärkli in St. Gallen. On the French side, the playground of the Parc des Acacias, Carouge (GE), comes first with 457 cigarette butts, closely followed by the Place d’Armes playground, in Yverdon, where there were 453 cigarette butts.
Freiburg
- Place for children’s games, rue du Criblet, Fribourg: 308 cigarette butts
- Schützenmatte, Grande-Place, Friborg: 348 cigarette butts
- Grandes Rames playground, Fribourg: 4 butts
- Motta playground, Fribourg: 39 butts
- Playground, Tour à Boyer, Romont: 76 butts
Geneva
- Playground at Parc des Acacias, Carouge: 457 cigarette butts
- Parc Beaulieu, Geneva: 35 butts
- Beaulieu Park, Geneva: 21 butts
- Parc de la Clairière, Geneva: 73 butts
- Playground at La Grange Park, Geneva: 37 butts
- Baby beach, Geneva: 44 butts
Jura
- Pré de L’étang park, Porrentruy: 200 cigarette butts
- Thurmann middle school playground, Porrentruy: 18 butts
Neuchâtel
- English garden, Neuchâtel: 198 cigarette butts
- Place du 12 September, Neuchâtel: 301 cigarette butts
Vaud
- Playground, Allée des Bacounis, Lausanne: 93 butts
- Playground, quai d’Ouchy, Lausanne: 43 butts
- Gottettaz playground, Lausanne: 17 butts
- Espanade de Montbenon Playground, Lausanne: 224 cigarette butts
- Playground at Lake Sauvabelin, Lausanne: 110 cigarette butts
- Place d’armes playground, Yverdon: 453 cigarette butts
Valais
- Pré des Soeurs playground, Ayent: 5 butts
- Mini golf, fishing: 20 butts
- Place de game, Fiesch: 30 butts
- Planta playground, Sion: 51 butts
- Dailles playground, Sion: 0 butts
- Furet public park, Sion: 25 butts
Parents know this well: we must constantly be careful to ensure that babies and young children do not put this unsavory waste into their mouths. For the director of stop2drop, Markus Dick, one thing is clear: cigarettes must be banned from all playgrounds in Switzerland. First, cigarette butts are a huge environmental problem. Second, he explains:
“Children copy what they see: if you smoke on the playground, the risk that children themselves will smoke later increases”
Markus Dick
Third, passive smoking is particularly harmful to children. And fourthly, he considers that cigarette butts represent a particular danger to children’s health.
According to Tox Info Suisse, the official information center for all questions relating to poisoning, serious poisoning is possible after six butts swallowed or two whole cigarettes ingested.
“If a child has ingested less than two cigarettes and has no symptoms, it is not an emergency”
Tox Info Suisse
Last year, Tox Suisse was contacted 219 times by parents of children under six years old for accidents involving ingested cigarettes. Zurich Children’s Hospital says cases involving children who swallowed cigarettes or butts are relatively rare. “We see them maybe three or four times a year,” says Georg Staubli, chief doctor of the emergency department.
A concept smoke-free play area
Stop2drop is currently developing an awareness campaign and a ready-made concept for smoke-free playgrounds. The organization wrote a letter to all the municipalities and cities analyzed to encourage them to ban cigarettes from playgrounds for little ones. Markus Dick explains:
“We don’t just want to introduce bans, but above all we want to achieve a culture change to emphasize the importance of clean and smoke-free play areas.”
The cost of smoke-free playgrounds is low. On the other hand, cleaning up cigarette butts is expensive. According to the Federal Office for the Environment, cigarette littering costs 52 million francs per year.
On the Mettlen playground in Kriens (LU), there were only three cigarette butts.Image: Barbara Inglin
Smoke-free play areas are popular. According to a survey by the Federal Office of Public Health dating from 2022, 78% of those questioned are in favor.
Up to 1000 francs fine
Some Swiss municipalities have already implemented a smoking ban in playgrounds.but their total number is unknown. Several cantons, including Zurich, St. Gallen, Lucerne and Aargau, encourage smoke-free playgrounds as part of smoking prevention programs.
In the canton of Geneva, there is a general ban on smoking in certain open-air places, including playgrounds. People who light a cigarette anyway are exposed to a fine of up to 1000 francs.
Stans’ Schlüsselmätteli achieves an exemplary result.Image: “stop2drop” association
In the canton of Bern, on the other hand, the parliament voted against a ban on smoking on playgrounds throughout the canton a year ago. Elected officials argued that a smoking ban would be difficult to implement. They even feared that more cigarette butts would be left lying around the playgrounds if the ashtrays were taken down.
In May, the St. Gallen city parliament removed the ban on smoking in municipal playgrounds from the police regulations. A committee led by MP and doctor Esther Granitzer (UDC) has now launched a popular initiative.
The news in Switzerland is here
Translated and adapted from German by Léa Krejci
