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American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1976 Jul;66(7):672–676. doi: 10.2105/ajph.66.7.672

Irritating effects on man of air pollution due to cigarette smoke.

A Weber, C Jermini, E Grandjean
PMCID: PMC1653382  PMID: 937615

Abstract

Sixty subjects were exposed to cigaretts smoke produced by a smoking machine in a climatic chamber. The irritating effects were recorded by questionnaire and related to concentrations of CO, formaldehyde, and acroleine. The eyes are most sensitive to these irritants, followed by the nose. Annoyance about air quality, and the desire to open the window or to leave the room proved to be other useful measures of sensitivity. With smoke produced by 10 cigarettes/30 m3 acroleine reaches 0.1 ppm, the threshold limit value for industries; simultaneously, CO and formaldehyde exceed the clean air standards for outdoor air. At this exposure level. 9 per cent of the subjects show a strong or very strong eye irritation, while 78 per cent "wish to leave the room." The most important of the measured irritants seems to be acroleine.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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