ABSTRACT
A rational delineation of the effects of environmental tobacco smoke on human health and comfort are totally dependent on the development and sound implementation of methods for identifying and quantifying the tobacco smoke component in indoor air. Environmental tobacco smoke is a mixture of sidestream smoke and exhaled mainstream smoke, the exact proportions being but one of the many fundamental facts about environmental tobacco smoke that are presently obscure. Development of chemical dosimeters and biochemical markers for easy and reliable measurements of long term, average exposures to environmental tobacco smoke products. The influence of exhaled mainstream smoke on the composition of environmental tobacco smoke can be estimated by adding 50% of mainstream smoke to 100% of sidestream smoke. Research needs for better characterization of environmental tobacco smoke and for a more accurate delineation of the significance of the measured quantities to retained dose were cited in the report of the 1983 workship on environmental tobacco smoke.
