Tracking Metals From E-cigarettes: From The Coil Into Lung Tissue

项目总结 电子烟(Ecs)是一种电池驱动的装置，可以加热液体以产生吸入的气雾剂蒸气。 由用户执行。尽管它们越来越受欢迎，特别是在年轻用户中，但人们对它知之甚少 使用EC对人类健康的影响。除了对尼古丁、调味品和其他化学物质的健康担忧 在液体中，来自我们实验室和其他实验室的新数据引发了人们的担忧，即ECS可能会使用户暴露在 有潜在危险的金属，因为加热的电线是用来产生气溶胶的，而且大多数线圈都含有镍 和铬，已知的吸入致癌物质。我们假设EC设备本身会释放镍、铬和 其他金属进入加热的气溶胶，这些潜在的致癌物可能会在肺组织中积累，并 血。我们将通过两种方式检验我们的假设。首先，我们将分析潜在的金属贡献 通过使用中子选择性地分别对每个部件进行放射性标记，EC设备中的单个组件 活化分析(NAA)，并分析其对所产生的加热气溶胶中金属含量的贡献。 其次，我们将利用暴露的小鼠模型来测量肺组织和血液中的金属浓度。 基于我们对欧共体尿液和唾液的电感耦合等离子体质谱分析的初步研究，我们进一步提出假设 用户和EC气溶胶直接测量，线圈设计、功率设置和EC设备的变化 建筑结构可能会对测量的镍、铬、铅和其他金属的浓度产生重大影响。我们的 具体目标包括：1)利用NAA对各种拆卸的EC硬件进行瞬时放射标记 组件，然后重新组装并测量收集到的辐射能谱 气雾剂以确定特定的金属污染源；以及2)小鼠暴露实验以测量 并分析了肺和血液中镍、铬和铅浓度的时间和剂量-反应关系 在暴露于EC气雾剂四周后。这项研究的发现可能会提供至关重要的和 到目前为止，政策制定者无法获得信息，使他们能够评估有毒物质的潜在健康风险 因使用EC而引起的金属暴露。我们假设健康风险因操作条件的不同而不同。 和具体的EC器件组成。

PROJECT SUMMARY Electronic cigarettes (ECs) are battery-operated devices that heat a liquid to generate an aerosol vapor inhaled by the user. Despite their increasing popularity, especially among younger users, little is known about the human health effects of EC use. In addition to health concerns about nicotine, flavorings and other chemicals in the liquid, new data from our laboratory, and others, raises concern that ECs may expose users to potentially dangerous metals since a heated wire is used to generate the aerosol, and most coils contain nickel and chromium, known inhalation carcinogens. We hypothesize that EC devices themselves release Ni, Cr and other metals into the heated aerosol and that these potential carcinogens may accumulate in lung tissue and blood. We will test our hypothesis in two ways. First, we will analyze the potential metals contribution of individual components within an EC device by selectively radiolabeling each part individually using Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) and analyzing its contribution to the metals content of the resultant heated aerosol. Second, we will measure metal concentrations in lung tissue and blood utilizing a mouse model of exposure. We further hypothesize, based on our preliminary studies using ICP-MS analysis of urine and saliva from EC users, and direct measurement of EC aerosol, that variations in coil design, power settings and EC device construction can have significant effects on measured concentrations of Ni, Cr, Pb and other metals. Our Specific Aims include: 1) utilizing NAA to transiently radiolabel various disassembled EC hardware components, followed by reassembly and measurement of the radiation energy spectrum of the collected aerosol to identify specific sources of metal contamination; and 2) mouse exposure experiments to measure and analyze time- and dose-response relationships for Ni, Cr and Pb concentrations in lung and blood following a four week exposure to EC aerosol. Findings from this study are likely to provide crucial and heretofore unavailable information to policy makers to enable them to evaluate potential health risks of toxic metal exposures arising from EC use. We hypothesize that health risks vary depending on operating conditions and specific EC device composition.