PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - El-Hellani, Ahmad
AU  - Watson, Clifford H
AU  - Huang, Michelle
AU  - Wilson, Clark W
AU  - Fleshman, Clint C
AU  - Tran, Hang
AU  - Chafin, Dana
AU  - McGuigan, Megan
AU  - Bravo Cardenas, Roberto
AU  - Petitti, Ryan
AU  - Pancake, Mary
AU  - Bennett, Chad
AU  - Mays, Darren
AU  - Keller-Hamilton, Brittney L
AU  - Jones, Jeremy
AU  - Ye, Wei
AU  - Schaff, Jason
AU  - Borthwick, Robert P
AU  - Williamson, Raymond L
AU  - Wagener, Theodore L
AU  - Brinkman, Marielle C
TI  - Benchmarking a universal smoking machine adaptor for tobacco product testing
AID  - 10.1136/tc-2023-058517
DP  - 2024 Jul 15
TA  - Tobacco Control
PG  - tc-2023-058517
4099  - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2024/07/15/tc-2023-058517.short
4100  - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2024/07/15/tc-2023-058517.full
AB  - Significance Characterisation of tobacco product emissions is an important step in assessing their impact on public health. Accurate and repeatable emissions data require that a leak-tight seal be made between the smoking or vaping machine and the mouth-end of the tobacco product being tested. This requirement is challenging because of the variety of tobacco product mouth-end geometries being puffed on by consumers today. We developed and tested a prototype universal smoking machine adaptor (USMA) that interfaces with existing machines and reliably seals with a variety of tobacco product masses and geometries.Methods Emissions were machine-generated using the USMA and other available adaptors for a variety of electronic cigarettes (n=7 brands), cigars (n=4), cigarillos (n=2), a heated tobacco product, and a reference cigarette (1R6F), and mainstream total particulate matter (TPM) and nicotine were quantified. Data variability (precision, n≥10 replicates/brand) for all products and error (accuracy) from certified values (1R6F) were compared across adaptors.Results TPM and nicotine emissions generated using the USMA were accurate, precise and agreed with certified values for the 1R6F reference cigarette. Replicate data indicate that USMA repeatability across all tobacco products tested generally meets or exceeds that from the comparison adaptors and extant data.Conclusion The USMA seals well with a variety of combustible tobacco products, e-cigarettes with differing geometries and plastic-tipped cigarillos. Variability for all measures was similar or smaller for the USMA compared with other adaptors.All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as online supplemental information.