Analysis of Toxic Elements in Tobacco Product Smoke and Aerosols and Assessment of Health Risks from Chronic Inhalation

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 7419

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tobacco and Volatiles Branch, 4770 Buford Hwy, MS S110-4, Atlanta, GA 30341, USA
Interests: analysis of tobacco and cannabis products including electronic nicotine delivery systems, electronic cannabinoid delivery systems, and their smoke and aerosol emissions for toxic metals, metalloids, and inorganic particles

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metals and metalloids are inorganic in nature, although they are transported in smoke and other tobacco product aerosols that contain complex mixtures of organic substances as well. Challenges surrounding high-quality analyses of metals and metalloids in these aerosol matrices include the low concentrations of some metals and metal oxides in mixed organic/inorganic matrices that may have the consistency of tar, the cost of machines that can provide standardized conditions for the collection of smoke/aerosol generated by the products, the difficulty of preventing sample contamination with environmentally ubiquitous metals and metalloids, the limited number of trapping materials and devices that are relatively free of leachable metals, and analytical interferences with analyses of some metals and metalloids.

Challenges for the assessment of health risks from chronic inhalation of toxic metals and metalloids from tobacco products include sparsity of data on chronic inhalation of some metals, the presence of toxic organic substances that are inhaled along with the inorganic substances, and difficulties surrounding assessment of health risks resulting from the accumulation of some metals in bone and soft tissues. Despite these challenges, biomonitoring studies have shown that some metals in smoke and aerosols from tobacco products may contribute significantly to individual health risks including cancers, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other chronic diseases.

We are pleased to invite you to submit manuscripts for a Special Issue of Toxics on the toxicology and assessment of health risks from chronic inhalation of emissions from tobacco products, including well-validated methodologies and results of clean sample collection and elemental analysis of smoke from combustible tobacco products, “heat, not burn” products, or aerosol from electronic nicotine delivery systems (electronic cigarettes or ENDS) that provide data for toxicological and health risk assessments.

The expense, site requirements, and requirements for analytical expertise related to acquiring equipment with the capability to obtain smoke and aerosol using standardized conditions followed by clean sample preparation and well-validated analytical data have limited the amount of data available to form a foundation on which to estimate exposures and calculate health risks. As a result, there are difficulties with merging biomonitoring and product emission data correlated with exposures with calculations of health risks that are consequences of the use of various tobacco products. This Special Issue will address the deficiency of data in this area by expanding the presently available product emission and biomonitoring data and by providing a platform for manuscripts on toxicological and health risk assessment calculations that are dependent on this data.

For this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: toxicology, health risk assessments related to the chronic inhalation exposures to inorganic particles and substances transported in tobacco product emissions, and well-validated sample collection and analytical methodology for the production of biomonitoring and product data in support of toxicological and health risk assessments.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Richard Steven Pappas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Tobacco
  • cigarette
  • electronic cigarette
  • smoke
  • aerosol
  • vapor
  • vaping
  • cancer
  • cardiovascular
  • COPD

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 2514 KiB  
Article
Analysis of the Aerosol Generated from Tetrahydrocannabinol, Vitamin E Acetate, and Their Mixtures
by Vladimir B. Mikheev and Alexander Ivanov
Toxics 2022, 10(2), 88; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics10020088 - 15 Feb 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2640
Abstract
E-cigarette, or vaping, product use–associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak was linked to vitamin E acetate (VEA) used as a solvent for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Several studies were conducted to assess the products of VEA (and THC/VEA mixtures) thermal degradation as a result of vaporizing/aerosolizing [...] Read more.
E-cigarette, or vaping, product use–associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak was linked to vitamin E acetate (VEA) used as a solvent for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Several studies were conducted to assess the products of VEA (and THC/VEA mixtures) thermal degradation as a result of vaporizing/aerosolizing from a traditional type (coil—cotton wick) and ceramic type coil vape pens. The particle size distribution (PSD) of VEA aerosol and the temperature VEA and THC/VEA mixtures are heated to were also measured for a few types of traditional and ceramic vape pens. The current study assessed the PSD of the aerosol generated from THC, VEA, and a number of THC/VEA mixtures using a dab-type vape pen under two different temperature settings and two puffing flow rates. Thermal degradation of THC, VEA, and THC/VEA mixtures were also assessed, and coil temperature was measured. Results showed the dependence of the PSD upon the chemical content of the aerosolized mixture as well as upon the puffing flow rate. Minimal thermal degradation was observed. Flaws in the vape pen’s design, which most likely affected results, were detected. The suitability of VEA, THC, and THC/VEA mixtures with certain types of vape pens was discussed. Full article
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11 pages, 268 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Toxic Metals in Aerosols from Devices Associated with Electronic Cigarette, or Vaping, Product Use Associated Lung Injury
by Nathalie Gonzalez-Jimenez, Naudia Gray, R. Steven Pappas, Mary Halstead, Erica Lewis, Liza Valentin-Blasini, Clifford Watson and Benjamin Blount
Toxics 2021, 9(10), 240; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9100240 - 29 Sep 2021
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 3906
Abstract
Research gaps exist in toxic metals characterization in e-cigarette, or vaping, products (EVPs) as these analytes typically have low concentrations and most standard aerosol trapping techniques have high metals background. An additional complication arises from differences in the EVP liquid formulations with nicotine [...] Read more.
Research gaps exist in toxic metals characterization in e-cigarette, or vaping, products (EVPs) as these analytes typically have low concentrations and most standard aerosol trapping techniques have high metals background. An additional complication arises from differences in the EVP liquid formulations with nicotine products having polar properties and non-nicotine products often being non-polar. Differences in polar and non-polar matrices and the subsequent aerosol chemistries from various EVPs required modifications of our previously reported nicotine-based EVP aerosol method. Validation and application of the expanded method, suitable for both hydrophobic and hydrophilic aerosols, are reported here. The metals analyzed for this study were Al, Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, Sn, Ba, and Pb. The method limits of detection for the modified method ranged from 0.120 ng/10 puffs for Cd to 29.3 ng/10 puffs for Al and were higher than reported for the previous method. Results of the analyses for metals in aerosols obtained from 50 EVP products are reported. Cannabinoid based EVP aerosols were below reportable levels, except for one sample with 16.08 ng/10 puffs for Cu. Nicotine-based EVP results ranged from 6.72 ng/10 puffs for Pb to 203 ng/10 puffs for Sn. Results of the analyses for these metals showed that aerosols from only 5 of the 50 devices tested had detectable metal concentrations. Concentrations of toxic elements in the aerosols for nicotine-based EVP aerosol metal concentration ranges were consistent with previously published results of aerosol analyses from this class of devices. Full article
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