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Sustainability
Volume 12
Issue 7
10.3390/su12072948
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Article

Second-Hand Smoke Exposure Effects on Human Health: Evaluation of PM10 Concentrations in the External Areas of a University Campus

by
Vincenzo Torretta
1,*,
Athanasia Tolkou
2,
Ioannis Katsoyiannis
2 and
Marco Schiavon
3
1
Department of Theoretical and Applied Sciences, University of Insubria, 21000 Varese, Italy
2
Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Technology, Department of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
3
Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(7), 2948; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072948
Received: 17 March 2020 / Revised: 3 April 2020 / Accepted: 4 April 2020 / Published: 7 April 2020
(This article belongs to the Section Environmental Sustainability and Applications)
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Abstract

Studies about the measurement of outdoor tobacco smoke (OTS) are limited to a few very recent studies. In many countries around the world, within public buildings, smoking is prohibited by law. However, these prohibitions often drive smokers to move to the border of the areas where smoking is forbidden, typically the entrances of buildings, in order to smoke. When many smokers stand outdoors near the entrances, a significant “wall” of smoke is generated. This condition exposes nonsmokers to smoke and contaminates the indoor environment too. Such a situation is amplified if the outdoor external area is covered. This paper presents a work carried out in a university campus, near building entrances, with the aim of studying the second-hand smoke (SHS) exposure in outdoor conditions. Measurements of particulate matter in specific environmental conditions are evaluated to estimate the OTS impacts on the students and the academic staff. The results showed that the exposure to tobacco can be very high and even comparable to values found when tests were carried out indoors, at the same distances from the smokers. A discussion about forbidding smoking near the entrances of public buildings is reported, including considerations about the environmental and public health concerns induced by SHS exposure and the smoking activity. View Full-Text
Keywords: outdoor tobacco smoke; particulate matter; public health; environmental pollution; exposure; air quality outdoor tobacco smoke; particulate matter; public health; environmental pollution; exposure; air quality
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
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MDPI and ACS Style

Torretta, V.; Tolkou, A.; Katsoyiannis, I.; Schiavon, M. Second-Hand Smoke Exposure Effects on Human Health: Evaluation of PM10 Concentrations in the External Areas of a University Campus. Sustainability 2020, 12, 2948. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072948

AMA Style

Torretta V, Tolkou A, Katsoyiannis I, Schiavon M. Second-Hand Smoke Exposure Effects on Human Health: Evaluation of PM10 Concentrations in the External Areas of a University Campus. Sustainability. 2020; 12(7):2948. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072948

Chicago/Turabian Style

Torretta, Vincenzo, Athanasia Tolkou, Ioannis Katsoyiannis, and Marco Schiavon. 2020. "Second-Hand Smoke Exposure Effects on Human Health: Evaluation of PM10 Concentrations in the External Areas of a University Campus" Sustainability 12, no. 7: 2948. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072948

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