Cigarette butts (CBs) are the most common littered items in the environment and may contain high amounts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from incomplete tobacco leave burning. The potential relevance of PAHs stemming from CBs for aquatic systems remain unclear since to date there is no systematic study on PAHs leaching from CBs. Therefore, in this study the leaching concentrations of 16 EPA-PAHs (except benzo(ghi)perylene) in 3 different types of water were measured. The concentrations of ΣPAHs leachates from 4 h to 21 days ranged from 3.9 to 5.7, 3.3–5.5, and 3.0–5.0 μg L⁻¹ for deionized, tap, and river waters, respectively. For all contact times, there were no substantial differences of the leachate concentrations of PAHs among different water types. Lighter PAHs had the highest concentrations among the detected PAHs and they were detected in the leachates already after 4 h. Concentrations of indeno(1,2,3-cd)pyrene, and dibenz(a,h)anthracene were below the limit of detection in all water samples at different contact times. At all contact times naphthalene and fluorene had the highest concentrations among the studied PAHs. Tap and river water samples with addition of sodium azide as chemical preservative contained significantly higher concentration of ΣPAHs. Our leaching data showed that leached concentrations of PAHs exceeded the Water Framework Directive (WFD) standards and considering the number of CBs annually littered this may pose a risk to aquatic organisms and potentially also humans.

烟头（CBs）是环境中最常见的乱抛垃圾，可能含有大量烟叶燃烧不完全引起的多环芳烃（PAH）。由于迄今为止尚未对从CB中浸出的PAH进行系统研究，因此尚不清楚由CB产生的PAH与水生系统的潜在相关性。因此，在这项研究中，测定了3种不同类型水中16种EPA-PAHs（苯并（ghi）per的除外）的浸出浓度。4 h至21天的ΣPAHs渗滤液浓度范围为3.9至5.7、3.3–5.5和3.0–5.0μgL ^-1用于去离子水，自来水和河水。对于所有接触时间，不同水类型之间PAHs的沥出液浓度没有实质性差异。较轻的PAHs在检测到的PAHs中浓度最高，并且在4小时后就已经在渗滤液中检测到它们。在所有水样中，在不同的接触时间，茚并（1,2,3-cd）py和二苯并（a，h）蒽的浓度均低于检测极限。在所有接触时间中，萘和芴在研究的多环芳烃中浓度最高。添加叠氮化钠作为化学防腐剂的自来水和河水样品中的ΣPAHs浓度明显较高。