Butt Out: A transdisciplinary approach in understanding and addressing the risks of littered cigarette butts

海洋垃圾，特别是塑料垃圾，已被证明是一个及时的，全球性的，重要的问题，以解决。然而，为了将这项研究扩展为有效的解决方案，需要汇集不同学科的专业知识。烟头是世界各地海岸线上发现的主要垃圾类型之一。在英国，海洋保护协会的年度公民科学调查确定，烟头一直是英国海滩上前5名的垃圾。由于政策干预，联合王国某些海滩垃圾物品（如棉花棒和购物袋）的数量有所减少。然而，在海滩上发现的烟头数量仍然很高，在2021年的GBBC年度九月海滩清洁期间，发现威尔士海滩上的烟头处于有史以来的最高水平。烟头被认为是一种塑料碎片，因为香烟过滤嘴包含由生物塑料醋酸纤维素制成的微纤维。这种垃圾是一种眼中钉，并可能对海滩游客的体验产生负面影响。此外，烟头可能会对海洋生物造成伤害，因为每个过滤嘴都可以释放出大量的微观纤维，这些纤维很容易被动物摄入。塑料微纤维会对海洋生物造成不良的健康影响，人们担心，来自烟头的纤维，注入与香烟烟雾相关的化学物质的鸡尾酒，可能会造成更大的毒理学风险。项目目的和方法在这个博士学位，学生将进行开创性的跨学科研究，探索烟头污染海滩的程度，更好地了解香烟纤维可能对海洋生物造成的危害，并阐明导致在海滩乱扔垃圾的行为，以确定和优化对乱扔烟头的适当干预措施。学生将与监督团队合作，共同开发有助于解决以下研究问题的方法：任务1。问题的严重程度如何？在MCS广泛的数据集的指导下，学生将有机会对与香烟相关的醋酸纤维素纤维的环境样本进行采样，处理和分析，这些样本太小，无法通过MCS现有的视觉调查进行观察。这些数据将阐明沿着英国海岸线与烟头相关的微纤维的流行情况。任务2.生态风险有哪些？学生将采用生态毒理学方法来确定香烟过滤嘴纤维对生态上重要的海洋无脊椎动物的危害，如浮游桡足类Acartia tonsa。暴露研究将使用醋酸纤维素微纤维和从未吸过、吸过和风化的香烟中制备的各种浓度的沥滤物。毒性阈值可与流行率数据（任务1）结合计算生态风险。任务3.为什么人们乱扔烟头？学生将批判性地研究以前在健康和环境心理学方面进行的工作，研究目前已知的关于乱扔烟头行为的关键驱动因素。然后，学生将通过运行元分析来扩展这项工作，以确定最有影响力的驱动因素（通常和海滩背景下），或者如果差距仍然存在，进行初步研究（例如，对吸烟者的问卷调查）。任务4.这些发现如何推动有效的干预？学生将讨论如何在海滩上乱扔烟头可以有效地解决。他们将首先在灰色和科学文献中进行文献综述，以了解以前测试过的干预措施及其有效性。然后，他们将集中精力测试合适的干预措施。

Project BackgroundMarine litter, particularly plastic debris, has been demonstrated to be a timely, global, and important issue to address. However, to extend this research into effective solutions, expertise from different disciplines needs to be brought together. Cigarette butts are one of the predominant types of litter identified on coastlines worldwide. In the UK, the Marine Conservation Society's annual citizen science survey determined that cigarette butts are consistently found in the top 5 litter items on UK beaches. The abundance of certain beach litter items in the UK e.g. cotton bud sticks and carrier bags have decreased as a result of policy interventions. However, the amount of cigarette butts found on beaches remains high and during the GBBC annual September beach clean in 2021, it was found that cigarette butts on Welsh beaches were at their highest levels ever recorded. Cigarette butts are considered to be a type of plastic debris, as cigarette filters comprise microfibres made from the bioplastic cellulose acetate. Such litter is an eyesore and can have negative impacts on beach visitors' experiences. Further, cigarette butts may pose harm to marine life, as each filter can release copious amounts of microscopic fibres that can be readily ingested by animals. Plastic microfibres can cause adverse health effects in marine organisms, and there is concern that fibres stemming from cigarette butts, infused with a cocktail of chemicals associated with cigarette smoke, may pose an even greater toxicological risk.Project Aims and MethodsIn this PhD, the student will undertake pioneering transdisciplinary research to explore the extent to which cigarette butts contaminate beaches, better understand the harm cigarette fibres can have on marine life and elucidate the behaviours resulting in beach littering, with a view to identifying and optimising suitable interventions to littering of cigarette butts. The student will work with the supervisory team to co-develop methodologies that help address the following research questions:Task 1. What is the extent of the problem? Guided by MCS' extensive datasets to identify hotspots, the student will have opportunities to conduct sampling, processing and analysis of environmental samples for cellulose acetate fibres associated with cigarettes, which are too small to be observed via the MCS' existing visual surveys. The data will elucidate the prevalence of microfibres associated with cigarette butts along UK coastlines. Task 2. What are the ecological risks?The student will employ ecotoxicological methodologies to determine the harm that cigarette filter fibres can have on ecologically important marine invertebrates, such as the pelagic copepod Acartia tonsa. Exposure studies will use cellulose acetate microfibres and leachates prepared from unsmoked, smoked and weathered cigarettes across a wide range of concentrations. Toxicity thresholds can be combined with prevalence data (Task 1) to calculate ecological risk. Task 3. Why do people litter cigarette butts?The student will critically examine previous work conducted in health and environmental psychology, examining what is currently known on the key drivers of littering behaviour when it comes to cigarette butts. The student will then extend this work either by running meta-analyses to identifying the most influential drivers (generally and in a beach context), or if gaps remain, conduct primary research (e.g. a questionnaire survey on smokers). Task 4. How can these findings drive forward an effective intervention? The student will address how cigarette butt littering on beaches can be addressed effectively. They will start by conducting a literature review in both the grey and scientific literature to understand what interventions have previously been tested and their effectiveness. They will then concentrate on testing a suitable intervention.