Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) Analysis of Trace Metals in Cigarette Litter collected at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA, United States

Cigarette smoking is the most commonly used form of tobacco in the world. It is practiced by a large portion of the population, especially young people. These people often ignore or disregard the harmful toxic impacts that cigarettes have on both themselves and the environment. The United States Center for Disease Control estimates that nearly 40 million U.S. adults still smoke cigarettes, with nearly 1600 U.S. youth starting cigarette smoking every day. Although it is well-known that smoking cigarettes is addictive and leads to a numerous health conditions including cancer, chronic pulmonary and heart disease, the effect of disposing the cigarette debris in the environment is not very well investigated. It is well known that tobacco smoke contains more than 7000 chemical components of which 250 of the components are harmful to human health. Therefore, there is a need to monitor the toxic elements in these residues, as it relates to the impact of cigarette smoking to the health of the smokers and the public health impact of society. Considering that college students are more likely to be smokers this study targeted a college campus in Southwest Louisiana, USA that still allows smoking on campus. The campus site chosen was McNeese State University with the typical younger college student population. Sample collection was done by distributing cigarette butt sample collection buckets throughout the campus for three weeks in March of 2018. The samples collected were then microwave digested with trace metal grade nitric acid, filtered with 0.45 µm filter and analyzed by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) for the following trace elements As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn.