Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter found in the marine environment, with an estimated 5 trillion or so discarded outdoors around the globe every year. New research suggests that littered cigarette butts may be an important source of metal contaminants leaching into the marine environment and potentially entering the food chain. The metals assessed included cadmium (Cd), iron (Fe), arsenic (As) nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and manganese (Mn) from discarded cigarette butts in the top 10 cm of sediment and deposited at the tidal mark on the beaches. The metal content was measured twice, with a period of 10 days in between, to gauge the potential impact of marine currents on levels. The levels of each of the metals varied considerably: from 79.01 ug/g to 244.97 ug/g for iron and 38.29 to 123.1 ug/g for manganese, for example. Arsenic levels varied from 0.12 ug/g to 0.48 ug/g. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160707083024.htm
