Development of Chitosan-Coated Filter for the Isolation of Harmful Chemicals from Discarded Cigarette Butts

Cigarette butts are hazardous to living organisms due to the presence of heavy metal ions that can cause damage to DNA and cells.Chitosan, a natural polymer derived from chitin, has excellent adsorption properties and is a potential solution to this problem.The study aims to develop a chitosan filter and evaluate its ability to remove harmful heavy metals from cigarette butts and investigate the toxicity of chemicals extracted from cigarette butts on human cultured cells.To conduct this study, we quantified the amount of iron (Fe), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) in samples of CBEs (cigarette butt extracts).The cytotoxicities of CBE with various concentrations were tested on the human skin cell Detroit 551.Cytotoxicity was also measured with CBE using the chitosan-coated filter.It was made by immersing the Whatman paper filter into a synthesized chitosan solution and drying it.It was then compared with the toxicity of other samples without the filter.Using the chitosancoated filter, concentrations from the cigarette butt extract decreased in particular heavy metals: Cu (92.1%),Zn (98.2%), and Pb (94.4%).Testing the cytotoxicity of CBEs, the results show a significant decrease in the live cell number starting from 5% CBE.The last experiment showed that 5% CBE with chitosan-coated filter paper, resulting in 1.21 x 10 6 cells/mL, was more effective in preventing cell deaths compared to non-filtered 5% CBE (0.32 x 10 6 cells/mL) and filtered 5% CBE (0.21 x 10 6 cells/mL).These results are significant as it shows how the chitosan-coated filter is a working method to isolate the heavy metals inside cigarette butt extracts and how it can have a positive impact on the environment with future research.