Public exposure to environmental tobacco smoke

Airborne particulate matter has been collected by personal samplers in public indoor areas and travel situations with environmental tobacco smoke pollution. Following extraction, the samples were assayed for mutagenicity in the presence of S9 with a sensitive microsuspension test using Salmonella TA98. The mutagenic responses of indoor air from public areas were much higher than those of ambient outdoor air. Depending on the circumstances, the mutagenic response varied in trains and airplanes but the results show that physical separation of non-smoking sections from smoking sections is necessary in order to achieve genuine non-smoking areas. Chemical fractionation and mutagenicity assay of the basic fraction show that Salmonella mutagenicity of airborne particulate matter might be used as a tobacco smoke-specific indicator, as the basic fraction of environmental tobacco smoke contains a large part of the mutagenic activity whereas this is not the case for outdoor ambient airborne particulate matter.