California Bans Smoking in Cars with Minors Present

Neil Klepeis — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 12:05:38 -0700

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that bans smoking in cars when there are hildren 17 or under. Those caught doing so will face a $100 fine. The infraction will be a secondary offense, meaning that a police officer could not stop a motorist only for smoking in a car with a minor. Use the car exposure simulation to see how high secondhand smoke levels can be in cars.

Belmont, CA Bans Smoking in Apartments

Neil Klepeis — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 13:31:55 -0700

The city of Belmont, California has passed a law banning smoking inside multi-unit housing. Soon, we at SimSmoke.Org will offer tools to explore exposures caused by leakage or drift of secondhand smoke between apartment or condominium units.

New Website for Tobacco Smoke Outreach

Neil Klepeis — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:16:18 -0700

The founder of the SimSmoke.Org website is now contributing to a new website TobaccoSmoke.Org, which aims to disseminate scientific information on exposure to secondhand smoke to the public. The new website contains booklets and briefings on published exposure measurements in cars, homes, the outdoors, and other locations.

New Research on Secondhand Smoke in Cars and Vehicle Air Change Rates

Neil Klepeis — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:11:04 -0700

A new article has been published (July 2007) on the amount of secondhand smoke air pollution that can occur in automobiles under various conditions. The Stanford University researchers (Ott, Klepeis, and Switzer) also measured many air exchange rates for different types of automobiles, which are valuable for use in simulating in-vehicle exposures to secondhand smoke as we do on the SimSmoke.Org website.

New WHO Report on Smoking Policies

Neil Klepeis — Tue, 29 May 2007 14:24:18 -0700

The World Health Organization (WHO) have released their report Policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. This document offers approaches to implementing policies that protect people from exposure to secondhand smoke. From the executive summary:

Scientific evidence has firmly established that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS), a pollutant that causes serious illnesses in adults and children. There is also indisputable evidence that implementing 100% smoke-free environments is the only effective way to protect the population from the harmful effects of exposure to SHS.

Three-Zone Mass Balance Model

Neil Klepeis — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:12:51 -0800

This tutorial is the third in a series that explores the mass balance model. Here, you can explore a three-zone model. Before using this tutorial, you should read the two previous tutorials containing an introduction to the mass balance model and an exploration of a two-zone model.

Exploring a Two-Zone Mass Balance Model

Neil Klepeis — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 16:28:59 -0800

After you have read about and understood the single-box model as presented in the introduction to the mass balance model tutorial, you are ready to explore more complex arrangements of zones. In the real world, homes typically consist of more than just a single room.

This exercise allows you to interactively explore a two-zone box model for air pollutant emissions. The pollutant mass is emitted into the first zone (Room #1), but it can travel to the second zone at the flow rate that you specify. Pollutant mass is removed from both zones by ventilation or by deposition onto surfaces. The emissions are assumed to be instantly mixed throughout the zones.

New Flash-Based Tutorials

Neil Klepeis — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:03:35 -0800

I have started created tutorials that make use of the Flash animation player. To start, the first tutorial is on the mass balance model. This model is one of the the basic building blocks for simulating indoor exposure to SHS.

Introduction to the Mass Balance Model

Neil Klepeis — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 16:50:05 -0800

On this website, we use a simple mass balance model to simulate indoor levels of SHS. The essence of the mass balance model is that the rate of change in pollutant mass in a given space at any given instant is equal to the amount coming in, minus the amount leaving. In an equation:

CHANGE_IN_POLLUTION = POLLUTION_ENTERING - POLLUTION_LEAVING

For this tutorial you can use a Flash animation to explore a single-zone box model, one of the most simple applications of the fundamental mass balance equation. Although the model can be applied to either air pollution or water pollution, we are interested in emissions of pollution from cigarettes and other tobacco sources.

The pollutant mass is assumed to be emitted into a confined space, in which the emissions are instantly mixed throughout the space. The air containing the mixture of pollutants can be exchanged with the outside. The pollution in the air can also be removed from the space by active filtration and by deposition onto surfaces present in the space.

Flash-Based Car Exposure Simulation

Neil Klepeis — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:23:29 -0800

This is the first interactive flash-based simulation at SimSmoke.Org. Please "play" with the car exposure simulation below, which features integrated instructions. When you are done using the simulation, please take a survey.

[Ed. note: The embedded flash does not seem to work with some versions of Internet Explorer. If you do not see an embedded flash animation below, please click on this link. You will need the Adobe Flash Player to see this simulation.]

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