Anti-smoking group, ASH Ireland, has said it is not surprised that the most common type of litter found in this country comes from tobacco products.

It was responding to the publication of a report by the National Litter Pollution Monitoring System, which was prepared on behalf of the Department of the Environment.

It assessed levels of litter in six local authority areas in 2012, including Dublin City Council, Mayo County Council and Monaghan County Council.

The report revealed that just 10% of areas surveyed were considered ‘unpolluted', while 63% of areas were considered ‘slightly polluted'.

Almost 23% of areas were moderately polluted, while 3% of areas were significantly polluted. Just 0.3% of areas were grossly polluted.

However, a breakdown of the type of litter found in these areas revealed that cigarette-related rubbish accounted for almost 53% of all litter, far ahead of the second most common type - food-related litter (19%). These were followed by packaging litter (13%) and sweet-related litter (7%).

The main causes were passing pedestrians (39%), passing motorists (18%), retail outlets (10%) and fast-food outlets (6%).

"We are not surprised to find that tobacco litter constitutes by far the biggest proportion of our national litter, as this has been confirmed by previous surveys conducted in Ireland and elsewhere," commented Dr Ross Morgan of ASH.

He pointed out that the group had appealed to the Government in 2010 to introduce a levy on the tobacco industry, ‘as a means of recovering the cost for clearing up this litter on ‘the polluter pays principle'.

"The cost to the state of cleaning litter, especially in the urban environment, is quite significant and we suggest that 50 cents be placed on the pack of cigarettes as a means of recouping this cost. It is vital that this cost is not passed to the consumer but borne by the highly profitable tobacco industry," Dr Morgan insisted.

He said that ASH had raised this issue with Health Minister, Dr James Reilly, shortly after his appointment ‘and we have raised it with him again this week'.

"There is of course an additional issue in regard to tobacco litter in that it is damaging to the wider environment and poses a risk to wildlife," Dr Morgan added.