| Title: | No Butts on the Beach: Aquatic Toxicity of Cigarette Butt Leachate Chemicals |
| Author(s): | Venugopal PD; Hanna SK; Gagliano GG; Chang HW; |
| Address: | "P. Dilip Venugopal, Interdisciplinary Scientist, Office of Science, Center for Tobacco Products, US Food and Drug Administration, Beltsville, MD, United States. Shannon K. Hanna, Lead Biologist, Office of Science, Center for Tobacco Products, US Food and Drug Administration, Beltsville, MD, United States. Gregory G. Gagliano, Lead Toxicologist, Office of Science, Center for Tobacco Products, US Food and Drug Administration, Beltsville, MD, United States. Hoshing W. Chang, Supervisory Toxicologist, Office of Science, Center for Tobacco Products, US Food and Drug Administration, Beltsville, MD, United States" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 2333-9748 (Print) 2333-9748 (Electronic) 2333-9748 (Linking) |
| 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 aquatic organisms. Of the 98 CB leachate chemicals, 25 are included in FDA's list of harmful or potentially harmful constituents in tobacco products and tobacco smoke. CONCLUSIONS: Our study quantifies CB leachate constituents, characterizes their ecological hazard and identifies chemicals of concern. Thus, it aids in evaluating the environmental impacts of tobacco products per NEPA requirements. These results provide important information for strategies to prevent and reduce CB litter (eg, awareness programs, litter laws enforcement), thereby reducing environmental hazards from CB toxicants" |
| Keywords: | National Environmental Policy Act cigarette butts ecological risk assessment ecotoxicology environmental impacts tobacco regulation; |
| Notes: | "PubMed-not-MEDLINEVenugopal, P Dilip Hanna, Shannon K Gagliano, Gregory G Chang, Hoshing W eng FD999999/ImFDA/Intramural FDA HHS/ 2021/02/04 Tob Regul Sci. 2021 Jan; 7(1):17-30. doi: 10.18001/TRS.7.1.2" |
