Justification of measures to protect against exposure nicotine-containing products in enclosed spaces

Introduction. The introduction of amendments and additions to the anti-smoking Federal Law No. 15-FZ of 23.02.2013 in 2020 contributed to the cardinal revision of the name of this law and the introduction of a ban on consumption of any nicotine-containing products in public places. There are no separate, specially allocated isolated premises provided for the consumption of tobacco products and other types of nicotine-containing products by law, even though specially conducted studies have shown significantly different levels of additional inhalation risk arising from air pollution when consuming tobacco products and electronic nicotine delivery systems or heating tobacco.

The aim of the study: based on experimental data, to justify the multiplicity of air exchange in unique isolated rooms designed to protect against the effects of ambient tobacco smoke, the consequences of tobacco consumption or nicotine-containing products.

Materials and methods. The study was subject to 3 types of nicotine-containing products: tobacco cigarettes (cigarettes), an electronic nicotine delivery system (ENDS) and an electronic tobacco heating system (ETHS). In the course of the study were carried out: a series of experiments on the consumption of nicotine-containing products in various ways in a specially equipped indoor room, air sampling and laboratory studies were performed, the gross and specific emissions of chemicals entering the air environment from one unit of production per hour were calculated, the selection of priority chemicals for calculating the air removed from the room when using nicotine-containing products of each type was carried out, the necessary level of air exchange of premises was calculated, intended for the consumption of tobacco or nicotine.

Results. The indoor air quality assessment showed that the main components of the gross intake into the air environment are suspended particles and carbon monoxide when smoking cigarettes. However, taking into account the values of the maximum permissible concentrations, the most significant contribution to the integral indicator is made by acetaldehyde and suspended particles PM₁₀ and PM_2.5. Using ENDS, the most significant pollutants were acetaldehyde and carbon monoxide, using ETHS — acetaldehyde and suspended particles PM₁₀ and PM_2.5. For all the investigation types of products, the priority substance for calculating the removed air is acetaldehyde, its share in the structure of all detected pollutants was: for cigarettes — 56.27%, for ENDS — 62.7%, for ETHS — 82.51%, in connection with which its specific values can be used to calculate the consumption of the removed air when modelling a specially allocated room intended for the consumption of tobacco products and other types of nicotine-containing products.

Conclusion. The obtained findings demonstrated an obvious, more than 10-fold difference in the requirements for air exchange of premises intended for cigarette smoking and premises intended for the consumption of ENDS or ETHS, at the same intensity of consumption. Therefore, when organizing specially designated places for smoking or the consumption of nicotine-containing products, it is advisable to separate them depending on the type of products consumed: tobacco smoking separately, ENDS and ETHS consumption separately.

Contribution:

Iakubova I.Sh. — concept and research design, choice of analytical methods, primary processing and analysis of measurement results, literature review, collection and processing of experimental materials, statistical processing, writing text, editing, approval of the final version of the article;

Zaritskaya E.V. — concept and research design, choice of analytical methods, primary processing and analysis of measurement results, collection and processing of experimental materials, statistical processing, approval of the final version of the article;

Alikbaeva L.A. — literature review, writing text, editing, approval of the final version of the article;

Suvorova A.V. — literature review, editing;

Ivanova E.V. — collection and processing of experimental materials, statistical processing.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement. The study had no sponsorship.

Conclusion of the ethics committee. The study with the participation of volunteers was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the North-Western State Medical University named after I.I. Mechnikov of the Ministry of Health of Russia (Protocol of November 20, 2019, No. 11).

Received: July 7, 2021 / Accepted: November 25, 2021 / Published: December 30, 2021