Study shows cigarette butts leak deadly toxins into the environment
May 2023, phys.org
"The filter is full of thousands of toxic chemicals and microplastic fibers, so it's not just any piece of plastic that's being discarded into the environment. It's hazardous waste,"
Fish can die if they are exposed to concentrations corresponding to the toxins exuded by barely two cigarette butts in one liter of water for four days.
The EU has already classified cigarette filters as hazardous waste, and from the turn of the year, it will be the tobacco producers who have to pay for cleaning up cigarette butts.
She doesn't think there are any good arguments at all for filters to remain a component of cigarettes. Along with other experts, Professor Carney Almroth has written an opinion piece in the magazine Science of the Total Environment arguing that cigarette butts are not just the most common litter item in the world, they are also just a marketing ploy that do little to protect the smoker, as many people believe they do.
University of Gothenburg: Therese Nitschke et al, Smokers' behaviour and the toxicity of cigarette filters to aquatic life: a multidisciplinary study, Microplastics and Nanoplastics (2023). DOI: 10.1186/s43591-022-00050-2
Also: Dannielle S. Green et al, Time to kick the butt of the most common litter item in the world: Ban cigarette filters, Science of The Total Environment (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161256
Image credit: AI Art - Businessmen Using Gasmasks by Francis Bacon and Norman Rockwell - 2022
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