DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTiON OF A LAW COST SMOKING MACHINE FOR TOBACCO SMOKE GENERATION AND DEMONSTRATION THE SMOKERS INTAKE

Abstract

Consumption of tobacco products has been deteriorating human health for centuries. As a resulttobacco smoke research has been carried out to understand the health impact to the activesmokers as well as passive smokers. However no attempt has been made to evaluate theimplicating to Sri Lankan population presumably due to lack of research facilities and interest.This project was initiated to fill the existing voidInitial step of tobacco smoke research is the generation of tobacco smoke. Nearly all theresearches have employed standard smoking conditions prescribe by tobacco research councilusing a smoking maching to stimulate the smokers. Thus generated smoke for mainstream andside stream is collected separately to evaluate the health impact to active and passive smokersrespectively. In addition, the information generae j using standard conditions enable theresearches to compare their results with the others in interpreting the health consequences.Initiating the tobacco smoke research, our primary objective was to construct a smokingmachine, which is not commerciallyt available in Sri Lanka. A user-friendly smoking machinewas design and constructed for a cost of two thousand Sri Lankan rupees. Which is at least 50times less expensive than a foreign smoking machine. Yet it simulates the actual smokingconditions generate the mainstream and the side stream separately for the analysis.The constructed smoking maching also utilized to cemonstrates the intake of smoke and itsdeposition in the respiratory tract of a smoker. Here the mainstream smoke emitted from themarchine was directed through a transparent tube simulating the passage through the respiratorytract. This set up can be utilized in public awareness programmes to demote the smokingpractices among the Sri Lankan public. Reproducible smoke generation, ability to change thesmoking parameters and the low cost are some of the attractive features of the constructed multipurposesmoking machine.