Metal analysis for non-tobacco smoking alternatives: Steam stone fluids and smoke

Although steam stones are marketed as free of nicotine, tar, carcinogens, and carbon monoxide, the use of traditional smoldering charcoal still exposes a user to these toxicants, including unacceptable amounts of harmful metals, such as Cr and As, despite the use of an alternative tobacco product. Notably, the use of electronic charcoal decreased the amount of toxic metals present in the smoke. Therefore, the smoke still contained relatively high levels of toxic metals, likely due to the use of traditional charcoal, which was previously quantified by ICP-MS/MS in our earlier paper [40].