Environmental tobacco smoke in an unrestricted smoking workplace: area and personal exposure monitoring

Abstract

The objective of this investigation was to determine the extent of areal and day -to -day variability of stationary environmental tobacco smoke ( ETS ) concentrations in a single large facility where smoking was both prevalent and unrestricted, and to determine the degree of daily variation in the personal exposure levels of ETS constituents in the same facility. The subject facility was a relatively new four -story office building with an approximate volume of 1.3 million ft 3 . The exchange of outside air in the building was determined to be between 0.6 and 0.7 air changes per hour. Eighty -seven area samples ( excluding background ) were collected at 29 locations over the course of 6 days of sampling. Locations included offices and cubicles occupied by smokers and nonsmokers, common areas, and the computer and mail rooms. Twenty -four nonsmoking subjects wore personal sampling systems to collect breathing zone air samples on each of 3 days in succession. This generated a total of seventy -two 8 -h time -weighted average ( TWA ) personal exposure samples. In all samples, respirable suspended particulate matter, ultraviolet light -absorbing and fluorescing particulate matter, solanesol, nicotine, and 3 -ethenyl pyridine were determined. With the exception of a few locations, tobacco -specific airborne constituents were determined in all samples. Not surprisingly, areas with the highest ETS constituent concentrations were offices and cubicles of smokers. Median and 95th percentile concentrations for all area samples, excluding background, were determined to be 1.5 and 8.7 g / m 3 for nicotine, and 8.2 and 59 g / m 3 for ETS -specific particles ( as solanesol -related particulate matter, Sol -PM ), respectively. Personal exposure concentrations of ETS components were similar to those levels found in the area samples ( median nicotine and Sol -PM concentrations were 1.24 and 7.1 g / m 3 , respectively ), but the range of concentrations was somewhat smaller. For example, the 95th percentile 8 -h TWA nicotine and ETS -specific particle ( as Sol -PM ) concentrations were 3.58 and 21.9 g / m 3 , respectively. Intrasubject variation of daily concentrations ranged from 20% to 60%, depending on the component. Self -reported proximity to smokers was supported by higher ETS concentrations determined from the personal monitors, but only to a modest extent. Although smoking was completely unrestricted inside the main office areas of the facility, ETS levels, either areal or from personal exposure measurements, were lower than those estimated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration to be present in such facilities.

Tachykinin substance P depletion by capsaicin exacerbates inflammatory response to sidestream cigarette smoke in rats

“…Briefly, on the day immediately following capsaicin treatment, the rats were exposed to 0 (filtered room air, control) and 0.4 mg/m 3 TPM of SSCS from standard research cigarettes (1R4, University of Kentucky Smoking and Health Effects Laboratory, Lexington, KY, USA), respectively, 4 h/day over 7 continuous days through a constant vacuum using a 24-port nose-only exposure chamber (IN-TOX, Albuquerque, NM, USA). The chosen concentration of SSCS was inferred from realistic measurements of indoor air concentrations of total suspended particles (TSPs, range from 10 to 1000 g/m 3 ) in smoker-occupied residences and up to approximately 2 mg respirable suspended particulates/m 3 in the smoking section of restaurants (Jenkins et al, 2001;USEPA, 1992). Consequently, the order of magnitude of SSCS exposure may conservatively reflect a realistic SSCS environment.…”

Effect of Ozone on Nicotine Desorption from Model Surfaces: Evidence for Heterogeneous Chemistry

“…Nicotine sorbs rapidly (τ ~ mins) and extensively (>95% sorbed within 2 h) to indoor materials (7), greatly reducing concentrations immediately following smoking and creating the potential for exposure after subsequent desorption (8). Sorption also limits the spread of nicotine as ETS mixes throughout residences (9) and offices (10). With repeated smoking, nicotine accumulates on materials and rates of mass desorption increase to yield higher daily "background" concentrations (11).…”

Modeling geographic and demographic variability in residential concentrations of environmental tobacco smoke using national data sets

“…Studies conducted before the introduction of smoking restrictions in public venues directly measured concentrations of ETS-PM using personal monitors, but the evidence from these studies cannot be used directly to construct exposure models in residential settings (Repace, 2004;Repace et al, 2006;Jenkins et al, 1996;Jenkins et al, 2001). Given increasing smoking restrictions in public places, the majority of the exposure and risk burden may shift to the residential environment, but no study to date has developed broad-based and generalizable models of ETS exposure inside homes.…”