Feizi Rozhan, Reshadatian Neda, Haghighat Mojtaba, Sabaghan Mohamad, Feyzi Kamareh Touran, Malekzadeh Hossein, Jaafarzadeh Nematollah, Jorfi Sahand
Behbahan Faculty of Medical Sciences, Behbahan, Iran.
Student Research Committee, Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.
Sci Rep. 2025 May 13;15(1):16525. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-01339-x.
Filtered cigarettes are now the dominant form of tobacco consumption worldwide, resulting in the production of 5 trillion/year cigarette butts as hazardous waste. Most cigarette butts are littered by smokers, and the trapped pollutants quickly leak into the environment. In this study, the density of littered cigarette butts in urban environment was interpreted by Cigarette Butt Pollution Index and the ecological risk and carcinogenic risk due to water pollution caused by leaked PAHs from the littered cigarette butts were assessed. The results showed that the density of littered cigarette butts in the most polluted location was 0.61 butts/m, while in the best conditions the density was 0.01 butts/m. According to the observed densities, the Cigarette Butte Pollution Index was 0.75 in the cleanest location and 12.2 in the most polluted location. The results showed that cigarette butt littering in the studied city caused the leakage of 88,181 g/year of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The average polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons leakage into the urban environment was 0.2844 µg/m. The ecological risk associated with the three types of PAHs, including Dibenzo(a, h)anthracene, Naphthalene, and Acenaphthene, was moderate, while the ILCR was calculated to be 5.4E-08. Reducing the density of littered cigarette butts in the studied urban environment and preventing the health and environmental consequences resulting from them requires reduce cigarette butt littering by smokers and increase the efficiency of the urban cleaning system.
过滤嘴香烟如今是全球烟草消费的主要形式，每年产生5万亿个作为有害垃圾的烟头。大多数烟头被吸烟者乱扔，截留的污染物很快就会泄漏到环境中。在本研究中，通过烟头污染指数来解读城市环境中乱扔烟头的密度，并评估了乱扔烟头泄漏的多环芳烃导致水污染所带来的生态风险和致癌风险。结果显示，污染最严重地点的乱扔烟头密度为0.61个/米，而在最佳条件下密度为0.01个/米。根据观察到的密度，最清洁地点的烟头污染指数为0.75，污染最严重地点为12.2。结果表明，研究城市中乱扔烟头导致每年有88181克多环芳烃泄漏。多环芳烃向城市环境中的平均泄漏量为0.2844微克/米。与三种多环芳烃（包括二苯并(a,h)蒽、萘和苊）相关的生态风险为中等，而计算得出的个体终身致癌风险为5.4E-08。要降低研究城市环境中乱扔烟头的密度并防止由此产生的健康和环境后果，需要减少吸烟者乱扔烟头的行为，并提高城市清洁系统的效率。
