Impact of cigarette butt leachate on tidepool snails

What is it about?

Cigarette butts are a major international litter item, and are often discarded in marine rocky intertidal areas. We show that leachate from butts enhances tidepool snail mortality and affects their behaviour negatively, and this differs among snail species, so may have key impacts on community dynamics.

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Why is it important?

Surprisingly few studies have dealt with the environmental (ie non human) impacts of cigarettes, and we show an important impact.