The Content of Heavy Metals in Cigarettes and the Impact of Their Leachates on the Aquatic Ecosystem

Maria Michael, Arun Meyyazhagan, Krishnakumar Velayudhannair, Manikantan Pappuswamy, Anu Maria, Vincent Xavier, Balamuralikrishnan Balasubramanian, Rathinasamy Baskaran, Hesam Kamyab, Yasser Vasseghian, Shreeshivadasan Chelliapan, Maryam Safa, Zohre Moradi and Mohamed Amine Khadimallah
Additional contact information
Maria Michael: Department of Life Sciences, Bangalore Central Campus, CHRIST University, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029, India
Arun Meyyazhagan: Department of Life Sciences, Bangalore Central Campus, CHRIST University, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029, India
Krishnakumar Velayudhannair: Department of Life Sciences, Bangalore Central Campus, CHRIST University, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029, India
Manikantan Pappuswamy: Department of Life Sciences, Bangalore Central Campus, CHRIST University, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029, India
Anu Maria: Department of Life Sciences, Bangalore Central Campus, CHRIST University, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029, India
Vincent Xavier: Department of Life Sciences, Bangalore Central Campus, CHRIST University, Hosur Road, Bengaluru 560029, India
Balamuralikrishnan Balasubramanian: Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea
Rathinasamy Baskaran: Department of Bioinformatics and Medical Engineering, Asia University, Taichung 41354, Taiwan
Hesam Kamyab: Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Yasser Vasseghian: Department of Chemistry, Soongsil University, Seoul 06978, Korea
Shreeshivadasan Chelliapan: Engineering Department, Razak Faculty of Technology & Informatics, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Maryam Safa: Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam
Zohre Moradi: Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin 34149-16818, Iran
Mohamed Amine Khadimallah: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj 16273, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-13

Abstract: Smoked cigarettes and butts are the most common kind of litter around the world. The buildup of these litters has badly polluted local water bodies and their compartments, and the cumulative effect of many cigarette butts scattered in a centralized location may pose a serious hazard to living species. To understand how heavy metals are leached out into the aquatic ecosystem, researchers must analyse the behavior of the materials that make up cigarettes. Using atomic absorption spectrometry, this study evaluated the content of several metals (such as Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Sn, Zn, and Hg) leached from various brands of unsmoked and smoked cigarettes and cigarette butts. The findings revealed that heavy metal is more prevalent in butte. These findings indicate that cigarette litter is a major source of metal contamination in the aquatic ecosystem and that apparent leaching may increase the risk of toxicity to aquatic organisms.

Keywords: aquatic pollution; ecotoxicology; risk assessment; monitoring; toxicology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4752/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/8/4752/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:8:p:4752-:d:794971

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().