Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 3.5
Tobacco-Related Contaminant Levels in Buildings
Nonsmoking
controls
Contaminant
Type of environment
Levels
CO
Room (18 smokers)
50 ppmv
0.0 ppmv
15 restaurants
4 ppmv
2.5 ppmv
Arena (11,806 people)
9 ppmv
3.0 ppmv
RSP
Bar and grill
589
µ
g/m
3
63
µ
g/m
3
Bingo hall
1140
µ
g/m
3
40
µ
g/m
3
Fast food restaurant
109
µ
g/m
3
24
µ
g/m
3
NO
Restaurant
63 ppbv
50 ppbv
2
Bar
21 ppbv
48 ppbv
Nicotine
Room (18 smokers)
500
µ
g/m
3
—
Restaurant
5.2
µ
g/m
3
—
Benzo-
α
-pyrene
Arena
9.9 ng/m
3
0.69 ng/m
3
Benzene
Room (18 smokers)
0.11 mg/m
3
—
Source:
From Godish, T.,
Sick Buildings: Definition, Diagnosis & Mitigation
, CRC
Press/Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton, 1995.
to occur in residences, restaurants, and other environments not subject to
Smokers subject both themselves and countless millions of nonsmokers
to a large variety of gas and particulate-phase contaminants. Tobacco smoke
reportedly contains several thousand different compounds, with approxi-
mately 400 quantitatively characterized. Some of the major air contaminants
associated with tobacco smoke include RSP; nicotine; potent carcinogenic
substances such as PAHs and nitrosamines; CO; CO
; NO
; and irritant
2
X
aldehydes such as acrolein, HCHO, and acetaldehyde.
Exposure to tobacco smoke occurs from what is described as second-
hand or environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). This smoke consists of exhaled
mainstream smoke (MS) and sidestream smoke (SS); the latter is emitted
from burning tobacco between puffs. Qualitatively, ETS consists of the same
substances found in MS; however, quantitative differences exist between SS
and MS.
On a mass basis, SS includes approximately 55% of total emissions from
cigarettes. Sidestream smoke is produced at lower temperatures than MS
and under strongly reducing (chemically) conditions. As a consequence,
significant differences in production rates of various contaminants occur for
SS and MS. These differences can be seen for a number of gas and particulate-
>1 indicate quantitatively higher concentrations in SS. Sidestream emissions
may be fractionally to several times higher for some substances to an order
of magnitude higher for others. As an example of the latter case, SS emissions
of the suspected carcinogen
-nitrodimethylamine are on the order of 20 to
100 times greater than those in MS.
Environmental tobacco smoke undergoes chemical/physical changes as
it ages. These changes include the conversion of NO to the more toxic NO
n
2
