Environmental Tobacco Smoke: Exposure and Effects

Dear Colleagues,

The involuntary exposure to passive smoking, also called Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS), has devastating health, social, environmental, and economic consequences, as reported in the brochure “Tobacco threatens us all” (WHO) for the World No Tobacco Day 2017. Despite a great amount of research carried out on this issue, many critical research agendas on ETS exposure and effects remain, and new evidence is needed.

For example, ETS has been recently demonstrated to result from the combination of two phenomena: Secondhand smoke (SHS) and thirdhand smoke (THS), which are, respectively, the environmental smoke near people who are smoking or just finished smoking, and the environmental smoke that persists long after the clearing of secondhand smoke. Studies performed to evaluate ETS chemistry, human exposure, and health effects should assess the independent contribution of both SHS and THS.

To further complicate this scenario, in the last years electronic (e-cig) and heat-not-burn smoking devices has become commonplace among smokers and non-smokers. Several studies evidenced that passive exposure generated by e-devices does occur, but further investigation is needed for better characterize these new exposure scenarios.

The focus of this Special Issue is aimed on ETS chemistry, exposure and effects gap, both for traditional combustion smoking products and for electronic and heat-not-burn devices. Authors are invited to submit original articles, systematic reviews and meta-analysis, critical reviews and short communications addressing all the issues relevant to highlight any recent advance in ETS exposure and their impact in individual and public health.

Prof. Dr. Matteo Vitali
Dr. Carmela Protano
Guest Editors

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