Airborne particulate matter (PM), apart from several toxic components, is also contaminated with tobacco smoke-driven particulates, Dr Noel Aquilina from the Department of Chemistry discovered in a study with other researchers.

Noel Aquilina, alongside world renowned tobacco smoke-related researchers, Emeritus Professor Neal L. Benowitz and Dr Peyton Jacob III from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), USA and atmospheric chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Roy M. Harrison, from the University of Birmingham, UK, discovered this ground-breaking issue.

This remarkable study was published in one of the most prestigious journals of air quality, Environment International and was supported by the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Programme, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Center for Research Resources and the UCSF Bland Lane Center of Excellence on Secondhand Smoke.

About 6 trillion cigarettes were smoked worldwide in 2016. Considering a conservative value, worldwide, Second hand Smoke (SHS) (from cigarette smoking alone), releases about 22 million kilograms of nicotine and about 135 million kilograms of PM into the atmosphere each year. The particulate matter from tobacco smoke-driven particulates still remains airborne.

These results have opened up further studies that could be possibly undertaken, such as the relation of cancer with cigarette smoking.

The results of the study were presented to President George Vella.