Biological effects of cigarette smoke, wood smoke, and the smoke from plastics: The use of electron spin resonance

Journal Article · Tue Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · Free Radical Biology and Medicine; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/0891-5849(92)90040-N· OSTI ID:7183224

Pryor, W A ^[1]

---

1. Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge (United States)

This review compares and contrasts the chemistry of cigarette smoke, wood smoke, and the smoke from plastics and building materials that is inhaled by persons trapped in fires. Cigarette smoke produces cancer, emphysema, and other diseases after a delay of years. Acute exposure to smoke in a fire can produce a loss of lung function and death after a delay of days or weeks. Tobacco smoke and the smoke inhaled in a burning building have some similarities from a chemical viewpoint. For example, both contain high concentrations of CO and other combustion products. In addition, both contain high concentrations of free radicals, and our laboratory has studied these free radicals, largely by electron spin resonance (ESR) methods, for about 15 years. This article reviews what is known about the radicals present in these different types of smokes and soots and tars and summarizes the evidence that suggests these radicals could be involved in cigarette-induced pathology and smoke-inhalation deaths. The combustion of all organic materials produces radicals, but (with the exception of the smoke from perfluoropolymers) the radicals that are detected by ESR methods (and thus the radicals that would reach the lungs) are not those that arise in the combustion process. Rather they arise from chemical reactions that occur in the smoke itself. Thus, a knowledge of the chemistry of the smoke is necessary to understand the nature of the radicals formed. Even materials as similar as cigarettes and wood (cellulose) produce smoke that contains radicals with very different lifetimes and chemical characteristics, and mechanistic rationales for this are discussed. Cigarette tar contains a semiquinone radical that is infinitely stable and can be directly observed by ESR. Aqueous extracts of cigarette tar, which contain this radical, reduce oxygen to superoxide and thus produce both hydrogen peroxide and the hydroxyl radical.

• OSTI ID: 7183224
• Journal Information: Free Radical Biology and Medicine; (United States), Vol. 13:6; ISSN 0891-5849
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
SMOKES
ACUTE EXPOSURE
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BUILDING MATERIALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBUSTION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DEATH
DISEASES
ELECTRON SPIN RESONANCE
EMPHYSEMA
FIRES
HYDROGEN
INHALATION
OXYGEN
PATHOLOGY
PLASTICS
RADICALS
REVIEWS
TAR
TOBACCO
WOOD
AEROSOLS
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
EVALUATION
INTAKE
MAGNETIC RESONANCE
MATERIALS
NONMETALS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
PETROCHEMICALS
PETROLEUM PRODUCTS
RESIDUES
RESONANCE
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM DISEASES
SOLS
SYNTHETIC MATERIALS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
550200* - Biochemistry
560300 - Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology