Ongoing projects

Passive exposure to nicotine and other toxicants from e-cigarette aerosol: a unique case
The use and awareness of electronic cigarettes began explosively in mid-2007 in our country. Their usefulness for quitting smoking or as a harm reduction tool, as well as their safety of use, still does not have sufficient scientific evidence. Likewise, there is currently not much scientific evidence on the potential passive exposure to the aerosol emitted by these devices. Currently, in our country, the Department of Health of the Generalitat de Catalunya recommends, as a preventive measure until conclusive studies are available, not to use electronic cigarettes around children and pregnant women. However, there are no studies on passive exposure to electronic cigarettes in pregnant women or on in utero exposure of the fetus or newborn.
To determine the possible passive exposure to aerosol emitted by the use of electronic cigarettes in a pregnant woman.
This is a single case study based on a pregnant woman and the people she lives with. Passive exposure to the aerosol emitted by electronic cigarettes as a result of living with a user of these devices is evaluated. Thus, a home where a couple (he the user of electronic cigarettes and she pregnant) and their three-year-old child live together is evaluated. This is an observational study without intervention by the researchers, maintaining the sources of exposure to aerosols “ad libitum”. For all study participants, hair, urine and saliva samples will be collected at different measurement points: weeks 31 and 36 of pregnancy and the day closest to delivery. An umbilical cord blood sample and a breast milk sample will also be collected.
2 years (2017-2018)
Montse Ballbè (IP). (ICO-IDIBELL)
Esteve Fernández (CO-IP). (ICO-IDIBELL)
Guillem Masana. Barcelona Clinical Hospital
Antoni Gual. Barcelona Clinical Hospital
Marcela Fu. (ICO-IDIBELL)
Raúl Pérez Ortuño. Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute
Jose Antonio Pascual. Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute