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Description
There are more than 4000 identified chemicals in tobacco and more than 7000 identified chemicals in a complex cigarette smoke mix. A lot has been written regarding chemicals in cigarette smoke and the dangers of those chemicals to human lives. But even though a lot has been written on this subject, very little research has been done into identifying the compounds that leachate and can subsequently cause acute toxicity to aquatic environments and life. Still, several studies have been published over the years that do provide evidence that cigarette butt leachates can potentially cause acute toxicity in several different marine and fresh water species including small fish, plankton, bacteria and invertebrates like water fleas. This study is an extension of previously conducted experiments and focuses specifically on leachate compound identification, trying to identify which compounds can possibly be responsible for the acute toxicity to aquatic life. For experiment we utilized two extraction methods: liquid/liquid and solid phase extractions as well as GC_GC/TOF-MS instrument for peak identification. Many chemical compounds were identified with the majority of compounds being identified using the solid phase extraction methods. Liquid/liquid method produced considerably less compounds, but it still yielded several compounds that were unique only to this method. Some of the chemicals identified from smoked cigarette butt leachates could be traced to their original unsmoked cigarette part (i.e. filter or tobacco parts). Chemicals that were retained in the smoked leachate samples, chemicals that disappeared and chemicals that were created could also all be traced and quantified. Some of the chemicals had similar to nicotine structures, an important detail since some of those compounds could be nicotine derivatives and could cause different levels of toxicity. We concluded that further studies into this subject are necessary. Studies mimicking environmental conditions with different condition variations will provide beneficial information. Also, studies using different type and cigarette brands could show variety in chemical composition. We also concluded that it would be best to utilize both extraction methods for future studies and use standards for chemical identification corroboration.
