Passive exposure to nicotine from e-cigarettes

A procedure based on the use of ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), after liquid-liquid microextraction (LLME), has been successfully employed for the determination of passive exposure to nicotine from cigarette and e-cigarette smoking. Nicotine has been determined in exhaled breath and oral fluids of both, active and passive smokers. The aforementioned studies, made in closed environments, evidenced that the exhaled breath after conventional blend cigarette smoke provides nicotine levels of the order of 220 ng per puff, in the case of experienced smokers, being exhaled only 32 ng in the case of e-cigarettes. On the other hand, the nicotine amount in oral fluids of passive vapers was between 8 and 14 mu g L-1 lower than the average value of 38 +/- 14 mu g L-1 found for passive smokers of rolling tobacco and clearly lower than the 79 +/- 36 mu g L-1 obtained from passive smokers of classical yellow blend. This study was also placed in the frame of the verification of the e-cigarettes composition. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.