Estimation of smokers' exposure to mercury from combustible tobacco products, based on the approach used in food consumers’ exposure estimation

• Published in: Food and chemical toxicology Vol. 181; p. 114053
• Main Authors: Hać, Paweł, Rutkowska, Małgorzata, Cieślik, Bartłomiej Michał, Konieczka, Piotr
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2023
• Subjects: Bidi; Cigar; Cigarette; Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems; Humans; Mercury - toxicity; Nicotiana; Pipe tobacco; Risk assessment; Smokers; Smoking; Tobacco; Tobacco Products; Cigarette; Tobacco; Cigar; Bidi; Pipe tobacco; Risk assessment
• ISSN: 0278-6915; 1873-6351
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2023.114053

Smoking has been known to mankind for centuries, but it is only in recent decades that much attention has been paid to the harmfulness of this habit. Mercury inhalation is particularly dangerous in this respect and smoking creates extremely favorable conditions for the emission and targeted delivery of this element into the lungs. Despite this fact, a lack of a clear method for estimating the exposure of tobacco consumers to mercury was identified. This work shows justification to transfer the approach of estimating food product consumers' exposure to estimate the exposure of combustible tobacco product consumers to this element. In addition, it was noted that researchers' attention is mainly focused on cigarettes, while the tobacco market has a wide range of combustible products. Therefore, in this work, the mercury content of cigars (8.45 ± 0.18–41.02 ± 0.20 μg/kg), pipe tobaccos (8.03 ± 0.52–25.48 ± 0.50 μg/kg), bidis (14.93 ± 0.47–31.79 ± 0.26 μg/kg) and cigarette tobaccos (14.22 ± 0.71–34.5 ± 1.4 μg/kg) was analyzed. This study demonstrates that smoking can contribute significant total mercury exposure to consumers', although it is unlikely to cause mercury poisoning regardless of other exposure sources.
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•It is justified to use food consumers Hg exposure estimation method for tobacco products consumers.•Smoking creates favorable conditions for release and targeted delivery of Hg to the lungs.•Lack of clear standard for maximum permissible tobacco mercury contamination was identified.•The approach used was for the first time used for tobacco products.