Real-Time Assessment of E-Cigarettes and Conventional Cigarettes Emissions: Aerosol Size Distributions, Mass and Number Concentrations

Cigarette smoke is a complex mixture of chemical compounds which are emitted during the processes of tobacco combustion. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) are expected to produce less harmful compounds due to the absence of tobacco leaf combustion. However, potential risks of the passive exposure to the aerosol exhaled by e-cig users have been raised in the last decade. In this study, the aerosols with diameter less than 1 μm (PM₁) produced by vaping of various e-cig liquids were compared to those generated by smoking conventional cigarettes in real time. The mass and number concentration along with the number size distribution were measured in a closed room of 35 m³ volume. Our results showed that aerosols emitted from e-cig liquids had a different profile compared to those from conventional cigarettes. Although e-cigs initially produced higher particle mass and number concentrations, their emissions had much shorter lifetime of approximately 10-20 s, in comparison with the conventional and hand-rolling cigarette particulate emissions which had a dissipation time of approximately 1.4 h in a 35 m³ room. E-cigs emitted aerosols which volatilized rapidly, as they probably consisted almost only of propylene glycol and/or vegetable glycerin.