Novel chemical contaminants associated with thirdhand smoke in settled house dust

• Published in: Chemosphere (Oxford) 2024-03, Vol.352, p.141138-141138, Article 141138
• Main Authors: Richardot, William H., Hamzai, Laila, Ghukasyan, Tigran, Dodder, Nathan G., Quintana, Penelope JE, Matt, Georg E., Sant, Karilyn E., Lopez-Galvez, Nicolas, Hoh, Eunha
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air Pollution, Indoor - analysis; Dust - analysis; House dust; Indoor pollution; Nicotiana; Nicotine - analysis; Nontargeted chemical analysis; Organophosphates; Tobacco smoke; Tobacco Smoke Pollution - analysis
• ISSN: 0045-6535; 1879-1298
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2024.141138

Thirdhand smoke (THS) is the persistent and toxic residue from tobacco smoke in indoor environments. A comprehensive understanding of the chemical constituents of THS is necessary to assess the risks of long-term exposure and to establish reliable THS tracers. The objective of this study was to investigate compounds associated with THS through nontargeted analysis (NTA) of settled house dust samples from smokers' and non-smokers’ homes, using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC/TOF-MS). Compounds that were either only present in dust from smokers' homes or that had significantly larger abundance than in non-smokers’ homes were termed qualified compounds. We identified 140 qualified compounds, and of these, 42 compounds were tentatively identified by searching matching mass spectra in NIST electron impact (EI) mass spectral library including 20 compounds confirmed with their authentic standards. Among the 42 compounds, 26 compounds were statistically more abundant (p