AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Metal Concentrations in Mainstream Aerosols from Electronic Cigarettes
TONGKE ZHAO, Shane S Que Hee, Qiuju Guo, Yifang Zhu, University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract Number: 226 Working Group: Electronic Cigarettes - Particle Generation
Abstract The electronic cigarette (EC) is an increasingly popular alternative to tobacco cigarette. ECs are usually composed of two parts: a rechargeable battery and a metal cartridge which generally contains a heating coil and some e-liquid (i.e. chemical mixture of propylene glycol or glycerol as the main composition with small amounts of flavor additives and selected amounts of nicotine). When ECs are puffed, the electric current provided by the battery can bring high temperature on the heating coil to evaporate the e-liquid into vapor. Metals in the cartridge shell and heating coil might be emitted due to the high temperature process. To study the metal concentrations in EC mainstream aerosols and further identify the sources of these metals, this study measured the metal concentrations in mainstream aerosols from different brands and types of electronic cigarettes by an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Furthermore, to identify the sources of metals in mainstream aerosols, the metals in the cartridge shell, e-liquid and heating coil were also quantified. These results showed that non-negligible levels of Chromium (Cr), Iron (Fe), Cobalt (Co), Nickel (Ni), Copper (Cu), and Lead (Pb) were presented in the mainstream aerosols, which were coming from both cartridge shell and heating coil. This study can be used for metal exposure assessment of electronic cigarettes.