No Butts on the Beach: Aquatic Toxicity of Cigarette Butt Leachate Chemicals.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Toxic pollutants leaching from littered cigarette butts (CB) raise environmental impact concerns. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is required to assess the environmental impacts of its tobacco regulatory actions per the US National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Methods

We determined the chemical constituents in CB leachate through analyses of 109 field-collected CB and literature compilation and characterized their ecotoxicity to aquatic organisms.

Results

One-third of the 98 identified CB leachate chemicals were very toxic and 10% were toxic to aquatic organisms due to acute and chronic toxicity. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals, phthalates, nicotine and volatile organic compounds were the most hazardous CB leachate chemicals for aquat

SUBMITTER: Venugopal PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7849351 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature