Abstract:
In order to objectively evaluate the influence of cigarette smoking on the air quality in an indoor environmentally friendly smoking room, an analytical method system for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) pollutants was established, including 13 indoor air quality indexes such as CO, PM
2.5, and 3 ETS markers such as nicotine. At different air exchange rates (i.e., low, medium, and high) of the smoking room, the influences of smoking on the concentration of air pollutants at the inside (two volunteers smoked one cigarette each during the test), air outlet of the smoking room, door, outside 1 m, outside 3 m, and non-smoking area were investigated. The results showed that: 1) The established offline analytical methods performed well and were suitable for quantitative analysis of ETS pollutants. 2) Compared to the condition where the extraction fan was not turned on (low air exchange rate), indoor air quality indexes such as CO, PM
2.5 significantly decreased at the medium and high air exchange rates of the smoking room, causing them to fall below the indoor air limit at all sampling points. Concentrations of the three ETS markers also decreased significantly. Solanesol was not detected at all sampling locations, while nicotine and 3-vinylpyridine were detected only in the smoking room. 3) At the medium and high air exchange rates, the reduction rates of all the indoor air quality indexes and ETS markers were equal to or greater than 93.00%, except for CO (approximately 77.00%). Therefore, smoking in an indoor environmentally friendly smoking room with normal maintenance had a minimal effect on the indoor air quality.