Author(s)

B. Kura, Y. Weatherton, E. Naoum, K. Kambham & S. Sangameswaran 1

Abstract

Cigarette smoke contains several toxic compounds that have harmful health effects on exposed individuals. This study determines the emission factors of particulate matter in sidestream cigarette smoke. The scope of this study included monitoring of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations in sidestream smoke in a test chamber for various cigarette-burning scenarios using a continuous monitor, DataRAM. This instrument is based on the nephelometric principle to sense the light scattered by particles which is then translated into mass concentrations. The peak concentrations observed; the volume of the test chamber, the number of cigarettes burnt, and the weight of the tobacco burnt were used in calculating the emission factors, and are expressed as \“µg/cigarette” and \“µg/mg of tobacco burnt.” Statistical analysis was performed to observe the relationship between the PM10/PM2.5 concentrations and the number of cigarettes burnt in the test chamber. The linear relationship observed between concentrations and the number of cigarettes with an r 2 value of 0.93 for PM10 and 0.97 for PM2.5 indicates an excellent correlation between the parameters studied. The F-test results and the confidence levels indicate the significance of the relationship between the concentrations observed and the number of cigarettes, along with the appropriateness of the test method adopted in this research. The results of this research are useful in risk assessment studies for different scenarios. Keywords: cigarette smoking, sidestream smoke, PM10, PM2.5, emission factors.

Keywords

cigarette smoking, sidestream smoke, PM10, PM2.5, emission factors.