RESEARCH PAPER

Residual tobacco smoke: measurement of its washout time in the lung and of its contribution to environmental tobacco smoke

Giovanni Invernizzi¹, Ario Ruprecht¹, Cinzia De Marco¹, Paolo Paredi², Roberto Boffi¹

¹ Tobacco Control Unit, National Cancer Institute and SIMG Italian College GPs, Milan, Italy
² Section of Airways Disease, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College School of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
G Invernizzi
Tobacco Control Unit, National Cancer Institute and SIMG Italian College GPs, National Cancer Institute, SIMG Italian College GPs, Via Venezian, 1, 20133 Milano, Italy, ginverni{at}clavis.it

Background: Tobacco smoking entails inhaling millions of fine particles with each puff, and it is intuitive that after smoking a cigarette it will take a certain time to washout residual tobacco smoke (RTS) from the lungs with subsequent breaths.

Objectives: To study the washout time of 0.3–1.0 µm particles after the last puff in 10 volunteer smokers by using equipment capable of measuring particle concentration in real time in the exhaled air.

Result: Mean (standard deviation (SD)) lung RTS washout time was 58.6 (23.6) s, range 18–90 s, and corresponded to 8.7 (4.6) subsequent breathings. The contribution of individual and overall RTS to indoor pollution was calculated by subtracting incremental background particle concentration from room concentration after 10 consecutive re-entries of smokers after the last puff into a room of 33.2 m³, with an air exchange rate per hour in the range of 0.2–0.4. Mean (SD) individual RTS contribution consisted of 1402 (1490) million particles (range 51–3611 million), whereas RTS increased room 0.3–1.0 µm particle concentration from a baseline of 22 283 particles/l to a final room concentration of 341 956 particles/l, corresponding to a total increase in particulate matter (2.5) from a background of 0.56 up to 3.32 µg/m³.

Conclusion: These data reveal a definite although marginal, role of RTS as a source of hidden indoor pollution. Further studies are needed to understand the relevance of this contribution in smoke-free premises in terms of risk exposure; however, waiting for about 2 min before re-entry after the last puff would be enough to avoid an unwanted additional exposure for non-smokers.

Abbreviations: ETS, environmental tobacco smoke; RTS, residual tobacco smoke

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Winickoff, J. P., Friebely, J., Tanski, S. E., Sherrod, C., Matt, G. E., Hovell, M. F., McMillen, R. C. (2009). Beliefs About the Health Effects of "Thirdhand" Smoke and Home Smoking Bans. Pediatrics 123: e74-e79 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Chapman, S. (2007). Evidence, ethics, hubris and the future of second-hand smoke policy. Tobacco Control 16: 73-74 [Full Text]