Description
Secondhand smoke contains more than 7,000 known chemical constituents, many of which are toxic and/or carcinogenic. The electronic vape user population has grown in the past decade. Consequently, non-users are becoming more exposed to secondhand vapor which contains toxic and unknown chemicals. The purpose of this study was to use silicone wristbands to identify differences in chemical profiles in different environmental conditions in children (N=21) exposed to conventional cigarette users (CC group), e-cigarette users (EC group), and nonsmoker (NS group). Wristbands were extracted via a non-targeted analysis using a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC/TOF-MS). We compared chemical profiles collected in silicone wristbands between all groups and tentatively identified 114 compounds based on high mass spectral matching with National Institute of Standards and Technology Electron Ionization Mass Spectral Library. All compounds were tested for their persistence in air, bioaccumulation, and toxicity based on data collected from the EPAs CompTox Database. Thirty authentic standards were purchased for confirmation and found to have a verification rate of 97%. Compared to the NS group, eight compounds were significantly more abundant in the CC group and seven were found in literature to be tobacco related. Compared to NS group, seven compounds were significantly more abundant in the EC group, and two were found to be associated with e-cigarette exposure in literature. One compound was significantly more abundant in the CC and EC groups. We identified three potential markers for secondhand smoke for conventional (2,3’-dipyridyl; à-ionone; 2-piperidinone; and 2- pyrrolidinone) and one for secondhand e-cigarette vapor (tri(2-chloroethyl) phosphate) based on abundance and literature-based evidence. Additional sources were found for the 114 compounds, including cannabis (2 compounds), pharmaceuticals (17 compounds), cosmetics (52 compounds), household products (30 compounds), and repellent products (22 compounds). These findings show that silicone wristbands worn by children capture a diverse set of tobacco smoke-related and other pollutants. Additional research is needed to validate the identified markers of secondhand smoke and e-cigarette vapor as markers of exposure.
