The use of cigarette equivalents to assess environmental tobacco smoke exposure

摘要

The development and use of the cigarette equivalent (CE) concept for estimating exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is reviewed. CE is a legitimate conceptual device for reporting and comparing ETS exposures. However, extension of the CE concept to predicting potential increases in health risk is fraught with numerous assumptions and is, therefore, not as often used or as well accepted. Mathematically, the CE concept relates the magnitude of a nonsmoker's ETS exposure to the magnitude of mainstream smoke inhaled by a smoker.