Research Center for Environmental Health Technology, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
J Hazard Mater. 2022 Mar 5;425:127969. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.127969. Epub 2021 Dec 1.
Cigarette butts (CB) are considered as a commonly littered waste. This hazardous waste contains a variety of pollutants. This study was developed to estimate the release of some heavy metals from CBs to the environment in different climatic conditions in different scenarios. To this end, CBs samples were obtained through artificial smoking from 10 high-consumption brands in the Iranian market, and their samples in urban areas were taken and analyzed in terms of heavy metals pollution. The results showed that the average concentrations of Lead, Cadmium, Chromium, Zinc, Copper, Nickel in the studied CBs were 1.71, 0.36, 1.59, 24.61, 12.83, and 2.66 µg/g, respectively. The long persistency of CBs in the environment leads to increased release of all heavy metals to 9.7%. In addition, the rainfall can accelerate the leaching of heavy metals to 17.7% compared to the control scenario. The total mean concentrations of the studied metals in the CBs samples collected from the urban areas in rainy and non-rainy conditions were measured to be 32.67-51.81 μg/g, respectively. According to the data obtained for the amount of each heavy metal releases in four scenarios, 147.5 kg/year and 57.3 kg/year heavy metals are released to the environment in the worst and the best-case scenarios. This study showed that CBs littering lead to the release of heavy metals into the environment; it is necessary to reduce the density of CBs in urban and public environments by training the smokers as well as increasing the efficiency of the urban cleaning system.
烟头（CB）被认为是一种常见的乱扔垃圾。这种危险废物含有多种污染物。本研究旨在估计在不同气候条件下，不同情景下，从 CB 向环境中释放一些重金属的情况。为此，通过人工吸烟从伊朗市场上 10 个高消费品牌中获得了 CB 样本，并对城市地区的 CB 样本进行了重金属污染分析。结果表明，在所研究的 CB 中，铅、镉、铬、锌、铜、镍的平均浓度分别为 1.71、0.36、1.59、24.61、12.83 和 2.66µg/g。CB 在环境中的长期存在导致所有重金属的释放增加到 9.7%。此外，与对照情景相比，降雨可使重金属的浸出率增加 17.7%。在雨天和非雨天条件下，从城市地区收集的 CB 样本中研究金属的总平均浓度分别测量为 32.67-51.81μg/g。根据四个情景下每种重金属释放量的数据，在最坏和最好的情况下，每年有 147.5 千克和 57.3 千克的重金属释放到环境中。本研究表明，烟头乱扔会导致重金属释放到环境中；有必要通过培训吸烟者以及提高城市清洁系统的效率来减少城市和公共环境中烟头的密度。
