Martha E. Dominguez, Ph.D. student
Walden University
PUBH 8165: Environmental Health, Section 1
Instructor: Dr. Robert Marino
Fall, 2011
Agenda
 Topic: Environmental Impact of Cigarette butts
 Purpose of presentation:
 Goals
 Learning Outcomes
 Overview of the issue:
 Magnitude of cigarette butts
 Problem
 The impact of the problem:
 Metal
 Toxicity
 Other Environmental impacts
 Who’s Butts?
 Solutions
 Research
 Questions?
Goals of the Presentation
 To educate about the harmful effects of tobacco waste
on the environment.
 Learn more about pioneer new research on the toxicity
of cigarette butts in the environment.
 Engage you and build support to protect the
environment.
 Develop linkage between environmental and tobacco
control groups to reduce tobacco waste.
Learning Outcomes
 Recognize that cigarette are toxic waste.
 Recognize that cigarette butts are a threat to our eco-
system.
 Explain that cigarette butts release toxic and metal
into the environment.
 Explain that cigarette butts are the # 1 item picked up
during beach and roadway clean-ups.
 Explain that cigarette filters are not biodegradable.
Magnitude
 Yearly, more than 360
billion cigarettes are
consumed in the Unites
States (USDA, 2007).
 Translates to
135,000,000 pounds of
discarded butts
(Register, 2000).
 Cigarette consumption
leads to cigarette butt
waste.
Cigarette Butt Problem

Cigarette butts are the #1 waste item collected from beaches, roads, and streets
(CDT, 2011 & OC, 2011).
 Annual beach clean-up campaigns.
 34% in California (Lipper et al., 2001)
 $41 million spend on waste clean-up (CDT, 2011)

Contribute to storm drain trash (Novotny et al., 2009).

Cigarette butts do not biodegrade (Smith & Novotny, 2011).
 Made of cellulose acetate, a plastic material.

Cigarette butts leach out toxic chemicals (Smith & Novotny, 2011).
 Over 4000 chemicals may be introduced to the environment via cigarette
particulate matter (i.e., tar or nicotine) and mainstream smoke (Slaughter et
al., 2011).
 Cigarette butts contain all the carcinogenic chemicals, pesticides, and
nicotine that make tobacco (Smith & Novotny, 2011).
Metals leached from cigarette butts
 Metals may rapidly released into the
environment (Moerman & Potts, 2011).
 Heavy metals from cigarettes butts leach
into the environment (Moriwaki et al,
2009 & Moerman & Potts, 2011):
 Lead
 Copper
 Chromium
 Cadmimum
 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
 Metal contamination can have acute
harm to local organisms (Moerman &
Potts, 2011).
 Toxic soup is created when butts are
soaked in water (Moerman & Potts,
2011).
Toxicity
 Cigarette butts are toxic.
 Studies have shown that smoked cigarette butts,
unsmoked cigarette tobacco, and smoked cigarette
tobacco are toxic due to the chemicals found in butts’
remnant tobacco (Register, 2000, Micevska et al., 2006,
& Slaughter et al., 2011).
 Cigarette butts are a potential ecological risk to the aquatic
environment (Slaughter et al., 2011)
 Study show that one cigarette butt will kill half the fish
exposed to leachates in a controlled laboratory setting
(Slaughter et al., 2011).
Toxicity
 Cigarette butts are poisonous if ingested by children
or wildlife (Novotny et al, 2011).
 Just one cigarette butt could be lethal and toxic.
 Ten milligrams (mg) of nicotine is the lethal.


In young children, 1 to 2 mg is toxic.
In pets, 9.2 mg is toxic.
 Cigarettes contain from 9 to 30 mg of nicotine,
and butts (filter) contain 0.1 to 1.5 mg
Other Environmental Impacts
 Unattended and discarded
cigarettes cause fires
(NFPA, 2011).
 Their non-biodegradability
increases waste
management demands
(Novotny et al., 2009).
Who’s Butts?
 The tobacco industry has recognized the problem.
 Keep America Beautiful campaign
 Position on problem:
 Has put the blame on the individual
 To persuade individuals to take responsibility, the
tobacco industry studied smokers’ attitudes
 Results:


Dislike seeing butts on the ground.
Individuals tossed butts on the ground as part of the smoker
ritual.
Butt Really!!!
 Join forces and find solutions to
eliminate cigarette butts!
 Tobacco control and
environmental activist need to
work together to hold the
tobacco industry accountable for
the toxic mess they’ve caused!
 Cigarette butts are the last
socially acceptable form of
waste.
 Cigarette butt waste is costly.
Solutions!
 Education and awareness
promoting behavior
change.

Quit smoking
 Enforcing litter laws and
fines.
 Support research on the
impact of cigarette butts
on the environment.
Further Reading Sources

Articles:

Novotny, T.E, Lum, K., Smith, E., Wang, V., Barnes, R. (2009). Filtered Cigarettes on cigarette waste. International Journal
of Environmental Research and Public Health.6, 1691-1705; doi:10.3390/ijerph6051691

Sawdey, M., Lindsay, R.P., Novotny, T.E. (2011). Smoke-free college campus: no ifs, ands or toxic butts. Tobacco Control.
20(Suppl 1):i21-i24. DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.04o139

Micevska T, Warne MS, Pablo F, Patra R. Variation in, and causes of, toxicity of cigarette butts to a cladoceran and
microtox. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. Feb 2006;50(2):205-212.

Moerman, J.W. & Potts, G.E. (2011). Analysis of metals leached from smoked cigarette litter. Tobacco Control. 20: (Suppl
1): i30-i35.

Moriwaki, H., Kitajima, S., Katahira, K., Waste on the roadside, ‘poi-sure’ waste: Its distribution and elution pontential of
pollutants into environment. Waste Management. August 2008 (29): 1192-1197.

Register, KM. Cigarette Butts as Litter—Toxic as Well as Ugly Underwater Naturalist, Bulletin of the American Littoral
Society, 2000. Retrieved from: http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/ciglitterarticle.htm

Slaughter, E., Gersberg, R.M., Watanabe, K., Rudolph, J., Stransky, C., and Novtny, T.E. (2011). Toxicity of Cigarette butts,
and their chemical components, to marine and freshwater fish. Tobacco Control. 20 (Suppl 1):i25-i29.
DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.040170. Retrived from http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/20/Suppl_1/i25.full.pdf

Websites:

California Coastal Commission- clean-up campaigns

http://www.coastal.ca.gov/publiced/ccd/ccd.html

Surfrider Foundation – Hold on to your Butts

http://sandiego.surfrider.org/campaigns/hold-on-to-your-butt

The Cigarette Butt Advisory Group and Cigarette Butt Pollution Project: http://www.cigwaste.org/

Research Studies: http://www.cigwaste.org/index.php/Research/

Earth Resource: http://www.earthresource.org/
Contact Information:
martha.dominguez@waldenu.edu
References:
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California Department of Transportation [CDT]. (2011). Don’t trash California: frequently asked questions fact sheet. Retrieved from
http://www.donttrashcalifornia.info/pdf/Frequently_Asked_Questions.pdf
Lipper, G., Johnson, J., Combs, S., Walter, K., Marx, D. (2001). Results of the Caltrans Litter Management Pilot. Transportation Research
Record 1743. Retrieved from http://www.owp.csus.edu/research/papers/papers/PP020.pdf
Micevska, T., Warne, M.J., Pablo, F., Patra, R. (2006). Variation in, and causes of, toxicity of cigarette butts to a cladoceran and microtox.
Archieved os Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. 50, 205-212. DOI: 10.1007/s00244-004-0132-y.
Moerman, J.W. and Potts, G.E. (2011). Analysis of metals leached from smoked cigarette litter. Tobacco Control. 20(Suppl 1):i30-i35.
DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.040196
Moriwaki, H., Kitajima, S., Katahira, K. (2008). Waste on the roadside, ‘poi-sure’waste: its distribution and elution potential of pollutants into
environment. Waste Management. 1192-1197.
National Fire Protection Agency [NFPA]. (2011). Smoking. Retrieved from
http://www.nfpa.org/itemdetail.asp?categoryid=294&itemid=19303&url=research%20&%20reports/fact%20sheets/safety%20in%20the%20ho
me/smoking%20material-related%20fires
Novotny, T.E, Lum, K., Smith, E., Wang, V., Barnes, R. (2009). Cigarette butts and the case for an environmental policy on hazardous
cigarette waste. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.6, 1691-1705; doi:10.3390/ijerph6051691
Novotny, T.E., Hardin, S.N, Hovda, L.R., Novotny, D.J, McLean, M., Khan, S. (2011). Tobacco and cigarette butt consumption in humans and
animlas. Tobacco Control. 20(Suppl 1):i17-i20. DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.043489
Ocean Conservancy.(2011). A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris. Retrieved from
http://act.oceanconservancy.org/pdf/A_Rising_Tide_full_lowres.pdf
Register, K. (2000). Cigarette Butts as Litter – Toxic as Well as Ugly. Underwater Naturalist Bulletin of the American Littorial Society. 25:2.
Retrieved from http://www.longwood.edu/cleanva/ciglitterarticle.htm
Slaughter, E., Gersberg, R.M., Watanabe, K., Rudolph, J., Stransky, C., Novotny, T.E.(2011). Toxicity of cigarette butts, and their chemical
components to marine and freshwater fish, Atherinops affinis and Pimephales promelas. Tobacco Control. 20(Suppl 1):i25-i29.
DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.040170
Smith, E. and Novotny, T.E.(2011). Whose butts is it? Tobacco industry research about smokers and cigarette butt waste. Tobacco Control.
20(Suppl 1):i2-i9. DOI:10.1136/tc.2010.040105
United States Department of Agriculture [USDA] (2007). Tobacco Outlook. Retrieved from
http://usda01.library.cornell.edu/usda/ers/TBS//2000s/2007/TBS-10-24-2007.pdf