At least in non-smoking areas you are safe from cigarette smoke, you might think. But as a study in a cinema now shows, people smoke there too: smokers carry harmful substances from cigarette smoke on their bodies and release them in non-smoking areas. The quality of the indoor air may be significantly affected, the researchers say.
Smoking only in front of the door! In order to protect people from the proven harmful effects of passive smoking, smoking is now strictly prohibited in public areas. In order to miss a dose of nicotine at events in closed rooms, smokers therefore enjoy their cigarettes in smoking areas. If you have a fine nose, you can smell it when you return – they sometimes carry a noticeable smell of smoke with them. Researchers from Germany and the USA have now investigated the extent to which this effect has an impact on air pollution in non-smoking areas.
Polluted air in the cinema
The researchers conducted their study in a movie theater where no cigarette has yet been lit. Using a high-resolution mass spectrometer, they recorded changes in the concentrations of various compounds that may be linked to tobacco smoke. Different performances took place in the cinema over the course of four days: in the afternoon there were children’s films with a suitably young audience – in the evening there were films for adults.
“The tests under these typical everyday conditions showed that people who had previously been exposed to tobacco smoke emitted potentially dangerous substances when entering a previously strictly smoke-free room,” says co-author Drew Gentner from Yale University. In addition to nicotine, the scientists were able to detect other substances in the indoor air that come from cigarette smoke and have a health-damaging potential. These included compounds such as acrolein, formaldehyde, benzene or acetonitrile.
“We assume that the cinema goers have transported the cigarette smoke residues with their clothes and their bodies into the closed room,” says co-author Jonathan Williams from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz. This effect became clear when the different cinema screenings were compared: The load on evening performances for adults increased particularly sharply, because the percentage of smokers was higher compared to children’s screenings, the scientists explain.
Insignificant traces?
The amount of dangerous substances is not negligible, say the researchers. Visitors to the cinema room were exposed to a load that corresponded to a passive exposure to smoke from one to ten cigarettes. As the researchers report, air concentrations peaked when the audience arrived and decreased over time. However, they did not disappear completely – even after leaving the audience they were detectable. The researchers attribute this persistent strain to the fact that surfaces and the room furnishings absorb the substances and later release them again.
“The idea that a non-smoker would be protected from passive smoking in a smoke-free room is a fallacy,” Gentner sums up the result of the study. In this context, he and his colleagues emphasize that the cinema hall was a relatively well-ventilated and large room. In contrast, the indirect smoke emissions in public transport, bars, offices and apartments would likely lead to significantly higher concentrations of many of the problematic compounds, the researchers say.
As part of the study, they also considered the possible effects of e-cigarettes. “As a source for many of the connections that we have identified, they are out of the question. However, nicotine levels could well come from e-cigarettes, ”says Gentner. That is why he and his colleagues now want to investigate the possible importance of this type of smoking for indirect indoor air pollution.
Source: Yale University, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, professional article: Science Advances, doi: 10 / eaay4109