Characterization of particle size distribution of mainstream cigarette smoke generated by smoking machine with an electrical low pressure impactor

• Published in: Journal of environmental sciences (China) 2014-04, Vol.26 (4), p.827-833
• Main Authors: Li, Xiang, Kong, Haohui, Zhang, Xinying, Peng, Bin, Nie, Cong, Shen, Guanglin, Liu, Huimin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosol; mainstream cigarette smoke; Nicotine - analysis; Particle Size; Tobacco Products - analysis; Tobacco Smoke Pollution - analysis; 低压; 吸烟机; 撞击; 电气; 表征; 颗粒大小分布; 颗粒尺寸分布; 香烟烟雾
• ISSN: 1001-0742; 1878-7320
• DOI: 10.1016/S1001-0742(13)60472-6

Cigarette smoking is a particle-related exposure. Studying the characteristics of the particle size distribution of cigarette smoke can aid in providing knowledge of smoke aerosol attributes. We used an electrical low pressure impactor （ELPI） to measure the particle size distribution of mainstream cigarette smoke generated by a smoking machine and provided a continuum of particle sizes of cigarette smoke from a whole cigarette. The results showed that the aerodynamic diameters （D, geometric mean of a channel） of particles ranged from 0.021 to 1.956 ~m, and the number concentrations were on the order of 105-109 cm-3 for different sizes of particles. The particle number of the size category below 0.1 p,m approximated that of the category 0.1-2.0 Ixm, and the particles in the size category of 0.1-2.0 μm contributed extremely heavily to total particulate mass. In addition, the results with small samples indicated that the tar yields normalized per milligram of nicotine showed an approximately linear increase with increasing concentration of total particles.