Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Nafiseh Mansouri ¹
• Mahmoud Etebari ²
• Afshin Ebrahimi ³
• Karim Ebrahimpour ³
• Behzad Rahimi ¹
• Akbar Hassanzadeh ⁴

¹ Student Research Committee, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

² Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

³ Environment Research Center, Research Institute for Primordial Prevention of Non-communicable disease; Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran

⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

Aims: Over 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced annually. Based on the observations, 76% of these consumed cigarettes are littered in public areas instead of discarding in suitable bins. Rainwater drain system carries the water and other wastes such as cigarette butts from the ground and transfers them to the bigger aquatic media without any treatment in which hundreds of chemicals leach into animal's habitats and our water supply origin. The key purpose of this article was to measure the concentration of Arsenic (As) released into water from cigarette butts and to compare their levels among the different brands. Materials and Methods: Ten cigarette butts (comprising cigarette filter and remaining tobacco) of five cigarette brands named Winston, Bahman, Kent, Montana, and Magna were soaked into individual 100 ml of distilled water for 10 days. Five solutions were prepared for each brand, as was detected in all leachate of brands but with different quantities. Results: Arsenic levels were 53.51, 32.78, 55.33, 42.4, and 59.24 μg/l for Kent, Winston, Montana, Bahman, and Magna, respectively. Conclusion: As concentrations were placed in the following order: Winston < Bahman < Kent, Montana, Magna. Based on the present study, cigarette butt plays an important role in environmental pollution and its importance should not be ignored in terms of arsenic potential.

Keywords

• Arsenic pollution
• cigarette butt
• nonpoint source pollution
• waste tobacco products
• water contamination