Indoor e-cigarette use can set off smoke detectors: perceptions of an emerging issue

Introduction

Numerous health organisations and researchers support including e-cigarettes in smokefree legislation due to the potential risks associated with exposing non-users to chemicals in exhaled aerosol and renormalising smoking.1 2 Another potential risk of indoor e-cigarette use is setting off smoke detectors. E-cigarette users exhale an aerosol of particulates and chemicals,3–5 which can trigger both ionisation and photoelectric-based smoke detectors. National fire surveillance systems collect reports of smoke detector false alarms. However, there is no reportable code for e-cigarettes (personal correspondence, Lawrence McKenna, PhD, US Fire Administration). Therefore, the extent to which e-cigarette use is setting off smoke detectors remains unclear. However, recent media reports suggest this is an emerging issue, as e-cigarette use has been setting off smoke detectors in a variety of environments, including airports, high schools and university dorms.6–10

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