香菸在熄滅後依舊釋放有害物質
Cigarettes aren't just toxic when they're being smoked. Even when the butts are scrunched up and cold, new research has found they continue to emit harmful compounds in the air.
香菸不僅在燃燒時有毒，甚至在菸蒂被揉成一團，徹底熄滅以後，一項新研究發現它們繼續向空氣中釋放有害化合物。In the first 24 hours alone, scientists say a used cigarette butt will produce 14 percent of the nicotine that an actively burning cigarette would. And the airborne emissions don't stop there.
科學家說僅在前24小時內，吸過的菸蒂釋放的尼古丁是燃燒時的14%，並且還在繼續向空氣中釋放物質。While most of these chemicals are released within a day of being extinguished, an analysis for the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found concentrations of nicotine and triacetin - a plasticiser in cigarette filters - had fallen by just half a whopping five days later.
雖然在熄滅以後的一天內會釋放掉大多數化學物質，但食品及藥物管理局的一項分析發現尼古丁和三乙胺（香菸過濾器中的塑化劑）的濃度在五天以後僅下降一半。
"I was absolutely surprised," says environmental engineer Dustin Poppendieck from the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
美國國家標準與技術研究院環境工程師Dustin Poppendieck說：“我非常驚訝。”"The numbers are significant and could have important impacts when butts are disposed of indoors or in cars."
“這些數值很重要，菸蒂被扔在室內或車裏時這些數值很值得關注。”
While much attention has been paid to the health impacts of first-hand, second-hand and now third-hand smoking - where chemical residues linger on walls and furniture - the actual butt of the matter has been paid little attention.
人們關注的都是一手煙、二手菸和現在的三手煙對健康的影響，三手煙是指化學物質殘留在牆和傢俱上，但這一問題的關鍵卻沒有受到太多關注。To measure airborne emissions from this forgotten remnant, Poppendieck and his team placed 2,100 recently extinguished cigarettes inside a walk-in chamber made of stainless steel.
爲了檢測被遺忘的菸頭釋放到空氣中的物質，Poppendieck和他的團隊在一個不鏽鋼步入式恆溫恆溼試驗室內放了2,100個剛熄滅的香菸。Once the freshly-extinguished ends were sealed away, the team measured eight chemicals commonly emitted by cigarettes, four of which the FDA have their eye on for being harmful or potentially so.
剛熄滅的菸頭剛被密封，研究團隊就開始檢測常見的香菸釋放的8種化學物質，其中4種因爲有害或有潛在危害而受到食品及藥物管理局關注。Triacetin is not one of the dangerous ones, but because it's so common in cigarette filters and doesn't evaporate easily, it's a good indicator of how other sticky chemicals are breaking down.
三醋精不是危險物質，但因爲在香菸過濾器中很常見，而且不易揮發，所以能很好的顯示其他粘性物質是如何分解的。Fiddling with the room's temperature, humidity and saturation, the authors tested how emissions changed under certain conditions. When the air temperature of the room was higher, for instance, they noticed the butts emitted these chemicals at higher rates.
研究者們先設定好房間的溫度、溼度和飽和度，然後測試在特定條件下排放量的變化。比如提高房間溫度時，他們注意到菸蒂釋放這些化學物質的速度更快。In other words, leaving ashtrays out for days at a time, especially in the heat seems like a bad idea, and could potentially expose smokers and nonsmokers to even more harmful chemicals than we thought.
換句話說，連續幾天不清理菸灰缸不是好習慣，尤其是在溫度高的時候，吸菸者和非吸菸者接觸到的有害化學物質比我們想象的要多。
