AAAR 33rd Annual Conference
October 20 - October 24, 2014
Rosen Shingle Creek
Orlando, Florida, USA
Abstract View
A Real-Time Fast-Flow Tube Study of VOC and Particulate Emissions from Electronic, Reduced-Harm, Conventional, and Reference Cigarettes
SANDRA BLAIR, Scott A. Epstein, Sergey Nizkorodov, Rufus Edwards, Ralph J. Delfino, Michael Kleinman, Nosratola Vaziri, Norbert Staimer, University of California, Irvine
Abstract Number: 68 Working Group: Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract The tobacco industry has promoted “harm reduction cigarettes" as safer than conventional brands. This also includes electronic cigarettes which are currently not regulated by the FDA. One approach to evaluate the potential toxicity of electronic cigarettes and “reduced-harm” cigarettes is to compare their volatile organic compound (VOC) and particulate emissions to that of conventional and reference cigarettes. In particular, reactive organic electrophillic compounds such as unsaturated carbonyls and small particles may determine possible adverse health effects. Although conventional cigarettes have been well characterized, few studies have used comparative real-time analysis of cigarette puff composition. Previous online studies of cigarette smoke VOCs were limited to low time resolution measurements, complicated instrumentation, and/or availability. We designed and carried out experiments that puffed on a cigarette at a selected puff frequency, promptly diluted the emitted mainstream smoke in a fast-flow tube, and analyzed the VOC composition and particle number concentration in real-time. The mainstream smoke residence time in the fast-flow tube was on the order of a few seconds, allowing adequate time resolution for the various selected puff frequencies, as the analytical instruments each offered high time resolution (<=1s). A high resolution proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTRMS) was used to analyze real-time cigarette VOC emissions and was able to resolve a highly electrophillic and toxic aldehyde, acrolein, from butenes, and determine the amount of acrolein and other carbonyls emitted per cigarette puff quantitatively. Several important factors in VOC and particle concentration will be discussed: (1) puff frequency, (2) "vaping" versus smoking, (3) puff number, (4) tar content, (5) absence or presence of a filter and filter type in reduced-harm cigarettes, and (6) traditional cigarette brands. Preliminary analysis indicates that electronic cigarettes are not free from acrolein emissions and have comparable particle concentration emissions to those of conventional cigarettes.