American Association for Aerosol Research - Abstract Submission

AAAR 37th Annual Conference
October 14 - October 18, 2019
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA

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Stability Testing of Large-Scale Whole-Body Inhalation Exposure Systems for Smoking Study

ZUOCHENG WANG, Amit Gupta, Steve Behringer, Zack Novak, Jan Satola, Ed Psurny, Sam Harbo, Battelle

     Abstract Number: 254
     Working Group: Aerosol Exposure

Abstract
E-cigarettes are less harmful than regular combustible cigarettes. However, more studies are necessary to investigate the long-term health effects from unexpected chemical changes, fugitive particles or fibres, and metals due to the varied combination of vehicle, flavor ingredients, nicotine, and device components. In this study, two large-scale whole-body inhalation exposure systems were set up and tested for stability (without animals) at high (1000 WTPM (wet total particulate matter) µg/L) and low (100 WTPM µg/L) concentrations from e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes.

Two systems were set up, one for e-cigarettes and the other for combustible cigarettes. One whole-body Hazelton H-1000 chamber (~1 m3, can hold 72 rats) was used for each exposure system. For e-cigarettes (button-activated), aerosol was generated by using linear smoking machines (Borgwaldt, LM24E) under CORESTA CRM81 puffing regimen (55/30/3). For combustible cigarettes (3R4F, University of Kentucky), cigarette smoke was generated by using rotary cigarette smoking machines (CH Technologies, JB2096) under Health Canada Intense Regimen (55/30/2). Each system was tested for 6 hours, run for stability at each concentration. Temporal stability and spatial uniformity were verified for each system. In addition, the following were quantified for e-cigarettes: tank weight loss, aerosol WTPM concentration, particle size distribution, nicotine, propylene glycol and glycerol concentrations; and the following were quantified for combustible cigarettes: butt length, aerosol WTPM concentration, particle size distribution, CO, nicotine, and aldehydes concentrations.

The results showed that the low and high target WTPM concentrations of 100 and 1000 µg/L were achieved within the chamber for both systems. Aerosol particle size (mass mean aerodynamic diameter) ranged from 0.9 to 1.0 µm for e-cigarette and from 0.7 to 0.9 µm for combustible. Chamber stability and uniformity were within specifications (<10%) for all the tests.