AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Real Time Observations of Indoor Third Hand Smoke Emissions Transported into Non-smoking Environments via Humans
ROGER SHEU, Jenna Ditto, Christof Stönner, Thomas Klüpfel, Jonathan Williams, Drew Gentner, Yale University
Abstract Number: 668 Working Group: The Air We Breathe: Indoor Aerosol Sources and Chemistry
Abstract We present the first real-time observations of indoor third hand smoke emissions from people into a non-smoking environment measured using online mass spectrometry (PTR-TOF) and also offline chemical speciation of gases and aerosols (GC-MS, LC-TOF). Despite no indoor smoking allowed at the movie theater site, we observed repeated emission events from the repartitioning of cigarette smoke tracers (e.g. 2,5-dimethylfuran, acetonitrile) into the gas-phase coinciding with the arrival of certain groups of audience members. We also observe simultaneous emissions of a wide range of aromatics, furanoids, and aldehydes, including multiple hazardous air pollutants (e.g. benzene, acrolein, styrene, and acetaldehyde), which are consistent with previously reported cigarette emissions and well-correlated with the known tracers. Concentrations of many of these volatile organic compounds are in parts per billion and increase over the course of each night and the weekend. We calculated emission rates and find that the audience experienced the equivalent of up to 5.6 cigarettes worth of secondhand smoke gases in a 1-hour period. These results demonstrate that third hand smoke is a major contributor to hazardous air pollutants and impacts indoor chemistry and secondary organic aerosol composition, especially in more confined spaces with smaller volumes and/or poorer ventilation than the theater studied here.
This study also includes the first high-resolution, non-targeted, comprehensive speciation of complex indoor aerosol mixtures without perturbation. Of the functionalized organic compounds observed via liquid chromatography, electrospray ionization in positive mode, reduced nitrogen species (CxHyNz), mostly in the intermediate-volatility range, comprise 35% of the total abundance. Nicotine alone represents 16% of the overall abundance, and likely has an outsized impact on the indoor chemical dynamics. We observe numerous accompanying nicotine-related alkaloids and metabolites, as well as a significant amount of CxHyOzNwSv compounds.