Laboratory Determination of Gravimetric Correction Factors for Real-time Area Measurements of Electronic Cigarette Aerosols.

Research on secondhand electronic cigarette (ECIG) aerosol exposure using aerosol monitors has demonstrated that ECIG use can generate high concentrations of particulate matter (PM) and impact indoor air quality. However, quantifying indoor air PM concentrations using real-time optical monitors with on-site calibration specifically for different PM exposures has not been established. Therefore, the ECIG aerosol filter correction factors were calculated for different PM sizes (PM1, PM2.5, and PM10) and different aerosol optical monitors, the MiniWRAS, pDR, and SidePak. ECIG aerosol generation was achieved using five ECIGs representing three ECIG types, disposable, pod-mod, and box mod. The aerosol size distribution by mass was measured for the five ECIGs during PM generation. Compared to the discrete filter measurements, the MiniWRAS performed the best when the concentrations were low, followed by the pDR and SidePak. The average PM concentrations and correction factor ranges for the different ECIGs were 323-1,775 μg/m3 and 0.64-6.01 for the MiniWRAS, 1,388-13,365 μg/m3 and 0.41-0.80 for the pDR, and 4,632-55,339 μg/m3 and 0.13-0.20 for the SidePak, respectively. The mass median diameter ranged from 0.41 and 0.62 μm, and most particles generated from the ECIGs were smaller than 1 μm. This study demonstrates that aerosol size distribution varies between ECIGs. Likewise, the correction factors developed for the real-time aerosol monitors are specific to the ECIG used. Thus, these data can help improve ECIG aerosol exposure measurement accuracy.