Brand Cigarillos — A Cheap and Less Harmful Alternative to Cigarettes? Particulate Matter Emissions Suggest Otherwise

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Alexander Gerber¹  Alexander Bigelow²  Michaela Schulze²  David A. Groneberg² 

[1] Institute of Occupational Medicine, Social Medicine and Environmental Medicine, Goethe-University, Theodor-Stern-Kai 7, Haus 9b, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;

关键词: particulate matter;    tobacco;    smoke;    cigarette;    cigarillo;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijerph120100428

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Background: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)-associated particulate matter (PM) constitutes a considerable health risk for passive smokers. It ought to be assessed separately from the other known toxic compounds of tobacco smoke. Brand-specific differences between cigarettes and particularly between cigarettes and favorably taxed cigarillos, are of public interest and therefore worth being investigated. Methods: An automatic environmental tobacco smoke emitter (AETSE) was developed to generate cigarette and cigarillo smoke in a reliable and reproducible way. John Player Special (JPS) Red cigarettes, JPS filter cigarillos and 3R4F standard research cigarettes were smoked automatically in a 2.88 m³ glass chamber according to a standardized protocol until 5 cm from the top were burned down. Results: Mean concentrations (C_mean) and area of the curve (AUC) of PM_2.5 were measured and compared. C_mean PM_2.5 were found to be 804 µg/m³ for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 1633 µg/m³ for JPS cigarettes, and 1059 µg/m³ for JPS filter cigarillos. AUC PM_2.5-values are 433,873 µg/m³×s for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 534,267 µg/m³×s for JPS Red cigarettes and 782,850 µg/m³×s for JPS filter cigarillos. Conclusion: Potential brand-specific differences of ETS-associated PM emissions among brands of cigarettes, and between cigarettes and cigarillos of the same brand and size should be investigated and published. Information about relative PM-emissions should be printed on the package.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.