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Leachates from Cigarette Butts Can Persist in Marine Sediment

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Abstract

Cigarette butts (CBs) can travel via stormwater runoff so they are very common on the beach. While there is evidence they can leach toxic chemicals into water, there is not much information about their behavior in sediment. We buried CBs in aquaria containing marine sediment at a concentration of 0.025 CB/g, and sampled it after 0, 5, 10, 20, 45, and 60 days. The sediment was solvent-extracted and analyzed by GC/MS. The chromatograms were compared to those of CB extracts to look for compounds in common. Nicotine, β-nicotyrine, myosmine, cotinine, linear alkanes, and xylenol were detected in the sediment up to 60 days from exposure so the leachates could have long-term impact on benthic fauna. The tobacco alkaloids or its metabolites could be used as specific markers of cigarette litter in sediment monitoring. These outcomes support the need for stricter regulation on cigarette waste to prevent it from reaching aquatic environments.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the CSULB Marine lab for providing space for the exposures, and Yvette Ralph, Armand Barilotti, and Jesus Reyes for helping with Catalina sediment collection.

Funding

This work was supported by the University of California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (award #24XT-0015 to Rich Gossett).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA, USA

    Ian C. King

  2. Institute for Integrated Research in Materials, Environments and Society, California State University, 1250 Bellflower Blvd, Long Beach, CA, 90840, USA

    Varenka Lorenzi, Mary E. Blasius & Rich Gossett

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  1. Ian C. King
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  2. Varenka Lorenzi
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  3. Mary E. Blasius
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  4. Rich Gossett
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Contributions

Ian King: investigation; methodology; writing—original draft; Varenka Lorenzi: conceptualization; project administration; investigation; methodology; supervision; writing—original draft; Mary Blasius: conceptualization; project administration; writing—review and editing; Rich Gossett: funding acquisition; conceptualization; project administration; writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Varenka Lorenzi.

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King, I.C., Lorenzi, V., Blasius, M.E. et al. Leachates from Cigarette Butts Can Persist in Marine Sediment. Water Air Soil Pollut 232, 38 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-021-04999-3

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