Lee Mi-Sun, LeBouf Ryan F, Son Youn-Suk, Koutrakis Petros, Christiani David C
Environmental and Occupational Medicine and Epidemiology Program, Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Ave, Building I Room 1401, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Respiratory Health Division, Field Studies Branch, Morgantown, WV, USA.
Environ Health. 2017 Apr 27;16(1):42. doi: 10.1186/s12940-017-0249-x.
We aimed to assess the content of electronic cigarette (EC) emissions for five groups of potentially toxic compounds that are known to be present in tobacco smoke: nicotine, particles, carbonyls, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and trace elements by flavor and puffing time.
We used ECs containing a common nicotine strength (1.8%) and the most popular flavors, tobacco and menthol. An automatic multiple smoking machine was used to generate EC aerosols under controlled conditions. Using a dilution chamber, we targeted nicotine concentrations similar to that of exposure in a general indoor environment. The selected toxic compounds were extracted from EC aerosols into a solid or liquid phase and analyzed with chromatographic and spectroscopic methods.
We found that EC aerosols contained toxic compounds including nicotine, fine and nanoparticles, carbonyls, and some toxic VOCs such as benzene and toluene. Higher mass and number concentrations of aerosol particles were generated from tobacco-flavored ECs than from menthol-flavored ECs.
We found that diluted machine-generated EC aerosols contain some pollutants. These findings are limited by the small number of ECs tested and the conditions of testing. More comprehensive research on EC exposure extending to more brands and flavor compounds is warranted.
我们旨在按口味和抽吸时间评估电子烟（EC）排放物中已知存在于烟草烟雾中的五组潜在有毒化合物的含量：尼古丁、颗粒物、羰基化合物、挥发性有机化合物（VOCs）和微量元素。
我们使用了含有常见尼古丁强度（1.8%）以及最流行口味（烟草味和薄荷味）的电子烟。在受控条件下，使用自动多口吸烟机产生电子烟气溶胶。通过稀释室，我们将尼古丁浓度设定为与一般室内环境中的暴露浓度相似。从电子烟气溶胶中提取选定的有毒化合物，使其进入固相或液相，并用色谱和光谱方法进行分析。
我们发现电子烟气溶胶含有有毒化合物，包括尼古丁、细颗粒物和纳米颗粒、羰基化合物以及一些有毒的挥发性有机化合物，如苯和甲苯。烟草味电子烟产生的气溶胶颗粒的质量浓度和数量浓度高于薄荷味电子烟。
我们发现经稀释的机器产生的电子烟气溶胶含有一些污染物。这些发现受到所测试的电子烟数量较少以及测试条件的限制。有必要对电子烟暴露进行更全面的研究，涵盖更多品牌和风味化合物。
