Environmental exposure and toxicology

TRDRP will support innovative and high impact projects that use environmental research and health communication strategies to prevent exposure to all commercial tobacco products, secondhand (SHS) and thirdhand (THS) smoke, chemical residue interactions, and tobacco product waste (TPW) bioaccumulation. TRDRP will continue to support toxicology studies of new and emerging tobacco products alone or in combination with cannabis.

Examples of relevant research topics: 

• Integrate approaches to prevent environmental exposure to all tobacco and nicotine products, SHS and THS in multi-unit housing, all indoor public spaces, or other settings. 
• Devise strategies to mitigate environmental exposure to commercial tobacco product(s) and TPW. 
• THS and SHS impacts on occupational work environment.  
• THS and SHS impacts on structural determinants of health. 
• Discern environmental determinants of smoking behavior. 
• Measure SHS, THS and TPW chemical exposure levels, chemical composition of dust and aerosol particle composition and chemical interactions using technologies and model systems. 
• Identify biomarkers to distinguish commercial tobacco product use and cannabis product co-use as an alternative to self-report of usage in surveillance studies. 
• Determine potential toxicological, health and behavioral effects of exposure to non-menthol synthetic cooling agents (e.g., WS-3 and WS-23), nicotine alkaloids (nicotyrine) and synthetic nicotine (metatine and meta-nicotine) across the lifespan.  
• Enable prediction of human health effects of tobacco and nicotine products by identifying causal links of dose-response toxicity assessments on human biological pathways and conduct validation studies using primary human cell models. 
• Identify potential health impacts of exposure to tobacco and nicotine product toxicants. 
• Conduct epidemiologically based exposure research to identify and characterize the tobacco control needs of various geographical communities and tobacco priority populations. 
• Identify innovative methodologies to assess and reduce the environmental impact of new nicotine product waste and bioaccumulation in various locations throughout California, particularly areas where the use of such products exceeds the median level in the state. 
• Evaluate the impact of environmental endpoints of TPW including microplastics on the environment and ecosystems such as soil, aquatic systems, waste management systems and storm drains.  
• Determine the environmental burden of E-cigarette product waste components such as batteries, and metallic components. 

NOTE: TRDRP currently funds a statewide consortium on thirdhand smoke (THS) research (https://thirdhandsmoke.org/) which includes the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Tobacco Biomarkers Laboratory. This laboratory is directed by Peyton Jacob, Ph.D. and Neal Benowitz, M.D. in the Clinical Pharmacology Program, Department of Medicine at UCSF. Investigators in the Clinical Pharmacology Program conduct studies on the pharmacology and toxicology of tobacco use including development of new biomarkers and analytical methods. The UCSF Tobacco Biomarkers Laboratory collaborates with other investigators to analyze samples on a recharge basis, and they welcome collaborations with TRDRP applicants. Tobacco product toxicants that can be detected and quantified include nicotine and metabolites, carcinogen biomarkers, thirdhand smoke components, tobacco specific nitrosamines, and various smoke toxicants. THC, CBD, and metabolites can also be detected and quantified. The following link describes the various assays and costs: https://cancer.ucsf.edu/research/cores/tobacco-biomarkers.   

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