title: Turning cigarette butt waste into an alternative control tool against an insecticide-resistant mosquito vector.
abstract: Annually, 4.5 trillion cigarette butts (CBs) are flicked into our environment. Evidence exists that CB waste is deadly to aquatic life, but their lethality to the aquatic life of the main dengue vector is unknown. CBs are full of toxicants that occur naturally, during planting and manufacturing, which may act as larvicidal agents. We assessed Aedes aegypti vulnerability to Marlboro butts during its development. Overall, CBs showed insecticidal activities against larvae. At early phases of development, mortality rates were much higher in two CBs solution (2CBSol) and 3CBSol microcosms (MICRs). Larval survival gradually decreased with development in 1CBSol-MICRs. However, in great presence of CBs, mortality was high even for the late developmental stages. These results suggest that A. aegypti larvae are vulnerable to CB presence in their habitats, but this effect was seen most during the early developmental phases and in the presence of increased amounts of cigarette remnants. CB filters are being used as raw material in many sectors, i.e., brick, art, fashion, plastic industries, as a practical solution to the pollution problem, the observed butt waste toxicity to mosquito larvae open new avenues for the identification of novel insecticide products.
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia. Electronic address: hamachan1@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Hamady
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dieng
authors.forename: Sudha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajasaygar
authors.forename: Abu Hassan
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Hamdan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Che Salmah Md
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Rawi
authors.forename: Wan Fatma
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Zuharah
authors.forename: Tomomitsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Satho
authors.forename: Fumio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Miake
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukumitsu
authors.forename: Ahmad Ramli
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Saad
authors.forename: Idris Abd
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Ghani
authors.forename: Ronald Enrique Morales
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.forename: Abdul Hafiz Ab
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Majid
authors.forename: Sazaly
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abubakar
mesh_terms: D000330:Aedes / Q000187:drug effects*; D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007306:Insecticides / Q000633:toxicity*; D007814:Larva / Q000187:drug effects; D016019:Survival Analysis; D062789:Tobacco Products / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D007306:Insecticides
keywords: Aedes aegypti; Cigarette butt; Larval development; Toxicity