Measurement of an electronic cigarette aerosol size distribution during a puff

Abstract

Abstract. Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have become very popular recently because they are marketed as a healthier alternative to tobacco smoking and as a useful tool to smoking cessation. E-cigarettes use a heating element to create an aerosol from a solution usually consisting of propylene glycol, glycerol, and nicotine. Despite the wide spread of e-cigarettes, information about aerosol size distributions is rather sparse. This can be caused by the relative newness of e-cigarettes and by the difficulty of the measurements, in which one has to deal with high concentration aerosol containing volatile compounds. Therefore, we assembled an experimental setup for size measurements of e-cigarette aerosol in conjunction with a piston based machine in order to simulate a typical puff. A TSI scanning mobility particle sizer 3936 was employed to provide information about particle concentrations and sizes. An e-cigarette commercially available on the Czech Republic market was tested and the results were compared with a conventional tobacco cigarette. The particles emitted from the e-cigarette were smaller than those of the conventional cigarette having a CMD of 150 and 200 nm. However, the total concentration of particles from e-cigarette was higher.

The Dynamics of Exhaled Aerosol Following the Usage of Heated Tobacco Product, Electronic Cigarette, and Conventional Cigarette

“…Similar trend holds for the distances of 1 and 2 m, with PNCt,max generated by EC was 4.0-5.0 and 1.0-8.2 times higher than HTP, respectively. Such difference is determined by a more efficient aerosol generation within the electronic cigarette, which results in a higher mainstream aerosol concentration (10E+9 # cm -3 for EC (Belka et al, 2017), vs <10E+8 # cm -3 for HTP (Pacitto et al, 2018), and apparently, exhaled aerosol concentration.…”

Cooking and electronic cigarettes leading to large differences between indoor and outdoor particle composition and concentration measured by aerosol mass spectrometry

“…These sources include cooking, [15][16][17][18][19][20] burning candles, [21][22][23] burning incense, 24,25 using cleaning products, [26][27][28][29][30] and electronic cigarette vaping. 31,32 The particle number and mass concentration indoors due to such activities can be orders of magnitude higher than outdoors. 10,[33][34][35][36][37][38] The majority of studies on the chemical composition of indoor particles use off-line techniques providing time-integrated values.…”

Influence of E-Liquid Humectants, Nicotine, and Flavorings on Aerosol Particle Size Distribution and Implications for Modeling Respiratory Deposition

“…Accurate measurement of e-cigarette aerosol characteristics (mass, number, size) is challenging because (1) a high droplet number concentration is generated during each puff, (2) some droplets contain constituents that are highly volatile, and (3) humectants are hygroscopic ( 8 , 19 , 36 , 43 , 58 – 60 ). Given the presence of volatile constituents, e-cigarette aerosol properties can change because of evaporation within aerosol sampling instruments, which in turn, can significantly distort PSD measurements ( 61 ).…”

“…Some studies reported that particle size decreased as the percentage of PG in the e-liquid increased ( 4 , 7 , 33 , 36 – 38 ), whereas other studies indicated that PSD increased as the percentage of PG in the e-liquid increased ( 39 ), or was not influenced by the ratio of PG and VG in the e-liquid ( 35 , 40 ). The presence of nicotine in e-liquids is reported to increase particle size ( 33 , 41 , 42 ), decrease particle size ( 41 ), or have no effect ( 8 , 43 – 47 ). Several studies reported that aerosol characteristics were not influenced by the presence of flavorings in e-liquids ( 8 , 33 , 35 , 45 , 47 , 48 ), though one study reported that the presence of vanillin drastically increased particle size.…”