Cigarette Butts Toxic to Fish

First posted on 05-18-2010

A study conducted by scientists at San Diego State University shows that smoking cigarettes can be harmful to the environment and particularly harmful to aquatic life. Richard Gersberg discovered that the chemicals inside just one left-over cigarette butt could kill fish living in a bucket of water.

Gersberg studied the effects of smoked, filtered cigarettes both with and without tobacco still attached as well as clean, un-smoked filtered cigarettes. About half the fish were killed despite very low concentrations of cigarette butts.

“The most important finding in this research is that it seems to be the filter, or rather what’s in the left-over filter that is most dangerous to our water,” Gersberg said.

Cigarette filters are made of cellulose-acetate, a material that is not readily biodegradable. An estimated 1.69 billion pounds of cigarette butts end up as litter worldwide.

As a result of Gersberg’s findings, the Cigarette Butt Advisory Group has recommended that cigarette butts be considered toxic waste and that they be included on the list of hazardous wastes.

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