Abstract
Background: Second hand smoke (ETS)-associated particulate matter (PM) contributes considerably to indoor air contamination and constitutes a health risk for passive smokers. Easy to measure, PM is a useful parameter to estimate the dosage of ETS that passive smokers are exposed to. Apart from its suitability as a surrogate parameter for ETS-exposure, PM itself affects human morbidity and mortality in a dose-dependent manner. We think that ETS-associated PM should be considered an independent hazard factor, separately from the many other known harmful compounds of ETS. We believe that brand-specific and tobacco-product-specific differences in the release of PM matter and that these differences are of public interest. Methods: To generate ETS of cigarettes and cigarillos as standardized and reproducible as possible, an automatic second hand smoke emitter (AETSE) was developed and placed in a glass chamber. L&M cigarettes (“without additives”, “red label”, “blue label”), L&M filtered cigarillos (“red”) and 3R4F standard research cigarettes (as reference) were smoked automatically according to a self-developed, standardized protocol until the tobacco product was smoked down to 8 mm distance from the tipping paper of the filter. Results: Mean concentration (Cmean) and area under the curve (AUC) in a plot of PM2.5 against time were measured, and compared. CmeanPM2.5 were found to be 518 μg/m3 for 3R4F cigarettes, 576 μg/m3 for L&M “without additives” (“red”), 448 μg/m3 for L&M “blue label”, 547 μg/m3 for L&M “red label”, and 755 μg/m3 for L&M filtered cigarillos (“red”). AUCPM2.5-values were 208,214 μg/m3·s for 3R4F reference cigarettes, 204,629 μg/m3·s for L&M “without additives” (“red”), 152,718 μg/m3·s for L&M “blue label”, 238,098 μg/m3·s for L&M “red label” and 796,909 μg/m3·s for L&M filtered cigarillos (“red”). Conclusion: Considering the large and significant differences in particulate matter emissions between cigarettes and cigarillos, we think that a favorable taxation of cigarillos is not justifiable.
Highlights
The brand L&M is produced by the Philip Morris Company, based in New York, NY, USA
Regarding area under the curve (AUC) PM2.5, differences were significant for L&M blue cigarettes and L&M cigarillos compared with the
In the present study we want to juxtapose PM2.5 amounts generated by L&M filtered brand cigarettes and L&M filtered brand cigarillos, compared to PM2.5 generated by filtered 3R4F reference cigarettes, using an automatic environmental tobacco smoke emitter and an aerosol spectrometer
Summary
The brand L&M is produced by the Philip Morris Company, based in New York, NY, USA. L&M cigarettes are globally available and quite popular in the USA, Latin America, Central and Northern. 2.20 EUR for a packet of 17 L&M filtered cigarillos) This price edge will enable brand-loyal cigarette smokers to stick to their usual brand despite rising cigarette taxes. This allows them to continue exposing their fellow humans including children to ETS of one brand up to decades. Several studies have shown that especially low-income smokers switch to cheaper brands or reduce consumption when cigarette prices rise [2,3]. All particles with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 10 μm are inhalable and categorized as PM10. All particles with an aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.5 μm are called PM2.5 or “fine particles”. The fraction of particles with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 1 μm is called PM1.
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