Passive smoking: Irritating effects of the total smoke and the gas phase

In a ventilated climatic chamber 32 subjects (in groups of two or three) were exposed in one experiment to the total sidestream smoke of cigarettes and in another experiment to the gas phase of cigarette smoke, which was obtained by filtering out the particulate matter. The degree of air pollution corresponded to 10 ppm CO in both experiments. The concentrations of the particulate matter, CO, NO, NO2 and HCHO were recorded. With a questionnaire, we determined the degree of annoyance and of subjective irritations of the eyes, nose and throat; eye blink rate was measured, as an objective indicator of eye irritation.