Thirdhand Tobacco Smoke Harmful to Non-Smokers

by | Mar 16, 2020 | 2020, Environmental Health, Tobacco

Written by Joyce Smith, BS. This research explores the ability of thirdhand smoke to contaminate non-smoking environments.

health hazardsWorldwide smoking rates are currently at 22% 1, and exposure to hazardous pollutants from tobacco smoke remains a major risk for nonsmokers. Thirdhand smoke (THS) has been identified as a major exposure pathway 2-4, even while some regulations have extended smoking restrictions to within 25 feet of a building’s doors, windows, and air intakes. THS contaminates smokers’ bodies and clothes, indoor furnishings and surfaces, and even building materials with hazardous volatile organic compounds VOCs) such as nicotine that can vaporize to a gas phase and recondense into aerosols 5, and attach to dust or other surfaces. Eventually they may form oxidation by-products such as highly carcinogenic tobacco smoke nitrosamines. 6

Studies have demonstrated the presence of THS-related VOCs in smoking environments but not in non-smoking environments, thus prompting researchers Sheu and colleagues to evaluate real-world emissions of THS from people in non-smoking environments. In a new study 7, the team demonstrated that smokers who enter a non- smoking movie theater can bring in a large amount of cigarette residue that will affect air quality for extended periods of time. In a well-ventilated non-smoking theater showing four to five films per day, the team used mass spectrometry to measure over a four-day period the amount of chemical pollutants that escaped through the theater’s ceiling vents. Thirty-five different VOCs, previously associated with THS or tobacco smoke emissions, were observed at significant concentrations in the theater, including the carcinogen benzene and toxic aldehydes, such as acrolein, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde.

These results demonstrate that human THS can contaminate the indoor nonsmoking environment and accumulate there. By measuring and comparing daily baseline concentrations through 4 consecutive days, researchers validated that persistent accumulation of VOCs from THS repartitions to surfaces and materials and leads to increasing concentration over the course of each day and weekend. Researchers saw concentration spikes occur repeatedly at the start of films during audience arrival and correlated with human occupancy numbers. During R-rated films, audiences were exposed to gas emissions that were the equivalent of one to ten cigarettes’ worth of various hazardous compounds (on average eight cigarettes worth of benzene and four cigarettes worth of acetaldehyde per hour). Spike increases were higher for R-rated action movies compared to family movie screenings (even when audience numbers were larger). In fact, THS emission rates were statistically higher for R-rated action movies than for family movies for most THS compounds (P<0.01) of which acetone, acetic acid, and acetaldehyde made up 51% of the emissions profile. Nicotine and related nitrogen-containing compounds, which vaporized from clothes and smokers’ bodies and recondensed onto aerosols, made up 34% of the organic aerosols. When theaters were closed and their ventilation rates were reduced, VOC concentrations were even higher.

Movie theaters are usually well-ventilated; however, other public places that are poorly ventilated may have a higher risk of transmitting THS. Included are non-smoking environments such as classrooms, office spaces, and public transit such as trains, buses, airlines and subway buses where smaller spaces can lead to greater exposure with higher occupancy rates. Future controlled studies that focus on the dangers to non-smokers of highly carcinogenic nitrosamine exposure from cigarettes as well as the effects of thirdhand vapor from e-cigarettes are warranted.

Source: Sheu, Roger, Christof Stönner, Jenna C. Ditto, Thomas Klüpfel, Jonathan Williams, and Drew R. Gentner. “Human transport of thirdhand tobacco smoke: A prominent source of hazardous air pollutants into indoor nonsmoking environments.” Science Advances 6, no. 10 (2020): eaay4109.

Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

Click here to read the full text study.

Posted March 16, 2020.

Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from  the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.

References:

  1. World Health Organization. WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic. 2017; https://www.who.int/tobacco/global_report/2017/en/. Accessed March 10, 2020.
  2. Jacob III P, Benowitz NL, Destaillats H, et al. Thirdhand smoke: new evidence, challenges, and future directions. Chemical research in toxicology. 2017;30(1):270-294.
  3. Winickoff JP, Friebely J, Tanski SE, et al. Beliefs about the health effects of “thirdhand” smoke and home smoking bans. Pediatrics. 2009;123(1):e74-e79.
  4. Sleiman M, Logue JM, Luo W, Pankow JF, Gundel LA, Destaillats H. Inhalable constituents of thirdhand tobacco smoke: chemical characterization and health impact considerations. Environmental science & technology. 2014;48(22):13093-13101.
  5. Collins DB, Wang C, Abbatt JP. Selective uptake of third-hand tobacco smoke components to inorganic and organic aerosol particles. Environmental science & technology. 2018;52(22):13195-13201.
  6. Whitehead TP, Havel C, Metayer C, Benowitz NL, Jacob III P. Tobacco alkaloids and tobacco-specific nitrosamines in dust from homes of smokeless tobacco users, active smokers, and nontobacco users. Chemical research in toxicology. 2015;28(5):1007-1014.
  7. Sheu R, Stönner C, Ditto JC, Klüpfel T, Williams J, Gentner DR. Human transport of thirdhand tobacco smoke: A prominent source of hazardous air pollutants into indoor nonsmoking environments. Science Advances. 2020;6(10):eaay4109.