Uptake of nicotine from discarded cigarette butts - A so far unconsidered path of contamination of plant-derived commodities
| Autor: | Carina Wittke, Melanie Nowak, Maik Kleinwächter, Ahmed El-Henawy, Megahed Amer, Hussein Taha, Dirk Selmar, Tarek Alshaal, Alzahraa Radwan, Neama Abdalla, Hassan El-Ramady |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Pollution Nicotine Health Toxicology and Mutagenesis media_common.quotation_subject 010501 environmental sciences Toxicology 01 natural sciences Tobacco medicine Farm workers Humans Soil Pollutants 0105 earth and related environmental sciences media_common Good agricultural practice General Medicine Tobacco Products Contamination Plants Cigarette butt Environmental science Environmental Pollution 010606 plant biology & botany medicine.drug |
| Zdroj: | Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987). 238 |
| ISSN: | 1873-6424 |
| Popis: | This study aimed to elucidate the origin of the widespread nicotine contamination of plant-derived commodities, by conducting field experiments with various herbs and spice plants. By scattering tobacco and cigarette butts on the field and subsequent nicotine analyses of the acceptor plants, we verified that the alkaloid is leached out into the soil and is taken up by the crop plants. This path of contamination pertains even when there is only one cigarette butt per square meter. Even such minor pollution results - at least in the case of basil and peppermint - in considerable high nicotine contaminations, which exceed the maximum residue level by more than 20-fold. The data reported here clearly outline the large practical relevance of this soil-borne contamination path and imply that unthoughtful disposal of cigarette butts in the field by farm workers may be the reason for the widespread occurrence of nicotine contamination in plant-derived commodities. Therefore, such misbehavior needs to be prevented using education and sensitization, and by including this issue into the guidelines of good agricultural practice. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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