Increased JUUL Emissions from Initial Puffs after Removing and Reinserting Pod
Eric Soule, SINAN SOUSAN, Dillon Streuber, Sarah Fresquez, Ronald Mooring, Rola Salman, Soha Talih, Jack Pender,
East Carolina University Abstract Number: 31
Working Group: Indoor Aerosols
AbstractStandard puffing protocols are used to examine tobacco product emissions. The tobacco industry has undermined these protocols and real-world cigarette smoking can generate more emissions than generated from laboratory protocols. Electronic cigarette (ECIG) emissions from standard protocols may differ from real-world emissions, such as removing and reinserting a pod, which may underestimate emissions. This study compared JUUL emissions from four 10-puff bout procedures. Using a diaphragm pump, we generated ECIG aerosol to puff a JUUL ECIG device at a flow rate of 1.5 L/min with 3-second puffs. ECIG aerosol was captured in a 0.5 m
3 exposure chamber in four experiments. We measured PM
2.5 mass concentrations using an optical pDR-1500 reference instrument and corrected the data with a filter correction factor. The JUUL pod was removed and reinserted 0 times, 1 time, 4 times, and 9 times in experiments 1−4, respectively. Mean real-time PM2.5 concentration was 65.06 μg/m
3 (SD = 99.53) for experiment 1, 375.50 μg/m
3 (SD = 346.45) for experiment 2, 501.94 μg/m
3 (SD = 450.00) for experiment 3, and 834.69 μg/m
3 (SD = 578.34) for experiment 4. In this study, removing and reinserting a JUUL pod resulted in greater PM
2.5 concentrations compared to puffing protocols in which the JUUL pod was not removed and reinserted. ECIGs should be examined and evaluated based on ECIG users’ real-world behaviors. These data have significant impacts on regulatory policy. As regulators, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, evaluate the potential risks and benefits of ECIGs, they will need to utilize puffing protocols that represent the multitude of ways in which ECIGs are used in real-world settings.