A examine not too long ago printed within the journal JAMA Community Open reported that secondhand hashish smoke launched from bong hits accommodates high quality particulate matter at a focus dangerously greater than secondhand smoke from tobacco cigarettes. This conclusion, which generated loads of uncritical media protection, was based mostly on analysis performed on the UC Berkeley College of Public Well being. Undertaking CBD requested cannabinoid scientist Matt Elmes, PhD, to overview this examine and assess the deserves of its findings.
Matt Elmes, PhD
Undertaking CBD: Is there a lot scientific knowledge on the hazards of secondhand hashish smoke?
Matt Elmes: Many medical research have demonstrated that long-term publicity to secondhand tobacco smoke has well being hazards. Thus far, only a few research have been performed assessing second-hand hashish smoke. We don’t know whether or not or to what extent publicity to secondhand hashish smoke is harmful.
Smoke is combination of gases and tiny particles of stable matter. Virtually all gases are invisible to the bare eye, so what we are literally ‘seeing’ after we see smoke is many billions of tiny particles of stable matter. This particulate matter is available in numerous varieties and sizes, which principally is dependent upon the chemical composition of the fabric that you simply’re burning and the circumstances of the combustion.
The current JAMA Community Open examine got down to measure stable particulates in air which can be particularly <2.5µm (‘micrometers’ – one one-thousandth of a millimeter) in measurement. This can be a widespread metric used when assessing air air pollution or air high quality. Airborne particles on this <2.5µm measurement vary are in a position to journey deeply into our respiratory tract, and an excessive amount of publicity has the potential to trigger short-term well being results resembling eye, throat, or lung irritation. Some research have additionally urged that long-term publicity can enhance the chance of continual bronchitis, most cancers, or diminished lung operate.
Undertaking CBD: Are there any confounding elements that would skew the outcomes of this examine?
Elmes: For starters, this ‘bong paper’ is a straightforward observational examine. It entailed a really ‘hands-off’ strategy that was in all probability used to bypass human analysis necessities. The researchers weren’t in a position to work together with the contributors in any method, not even to offer them any directions or steerage! Contributors all supplied their very own weed, their very own bong, their very own experimental circumstances in their very own house. This type of examine design is much from superb and significantly limits our skill to attract many concrete conclusions.
To elaborate, the examine design was in all probability chosen as a workaround because of the researchers not having the ability to legally run a correctly managed examine due to the illicit Schedule I standing of hashish. Analysis teams which have any federal grant funding (as do the overwhelming majority of educational analysis teams) can not immediately examine Schedule I medication with out leaping by means of vital regulatory hurdles. It’s additionally value noting that that is technically not a human examine. The necessity for IRB [Institutional Review Board] approval was waived right here. Which means the researchers had been extraordinarily restricted in what they might examine, their recruitment procedures, and the way they might work together with the contributors.
Undertaking CBD: The paper states: “A number of people who smoke smoked at their very own volition, advert libitum, in a social setting of their very own selecting, not an experimental setting, and with none directions or limitations from the investigators.” What are we to make of this?
Elmes: I feel the issue right here speaks for itself! Completely uncontrolled and we all know next-to-nothing concerning the circumstances wherein these measurements had been carried out. Because the contributors smoked “in a social setting of their very own selecting” and weren’t given every other directions, it appears probably that the smoke generated from a single particular person smoking a bong wasn’t the one factor detected. There might have been a number of buddies in the identical room who had been additionally hitting the bong, which might not be uncommon. This is able to appear to be at odds with the air high quality research arrange in a single tobacco smoker’s house.
Undertaking CBD: Does it make sense to immediately evaluate the information from this examine to what’s identified concerning the particulate matter in secondhand tobacco smoke?
Elmes: It’s probably not a good comparability because of the many stark variations in how the research had been performed and their uncontrolled nature. The tobacco research had been performed in dissimilar environments and generally differ within the gadgets used to measure air particulates. The cited tobacco papers additionally present loads of variances of their air high quality knowledge as evidenced by massive commonplace deviation values.
There are additionally key variations within the method that bongs and cigarettes are usually smoked. Cigarettes often contain plenty of small puffs all through the day, whereas smoking a bong is infamous for giant billowy hits inside a smaller timeframe. Evaluating tobacco cigarettes to hashish joints would appear to be a bit extra apt.
It’s not controversial to counsel that the odor from cigarette smoke tends to ‘stick’ to a room rather more than hashish smoke. Cigarette people who smoke in properties are sometimes made to smoke exterior or close to an open window. Air movement is a vital determinant in how rapidly smoke will clear from a room, and we’ve completely no concept how drafty or unventilated the rooms they smoked in had been. Nonetheless, the Strategies part of this bong paper states that “all home windows and doorways had been noticed to be closed for every [bong smoking] session.” It appears unlikely that the contributors of the comparative second-hand tobacco smoke research could be equally ‘hot-boxing’ their residing rooms with cigarettes. We can not comparatively assess air particulate knowledge with out figuring out whether or not the cigarettes and bongs had been smoked in equally ventilated areas or not. It’s one among many circumstances that had been merely not managed for on this examine. We don’t even know if cigarettes had been additionally smoked in the identical room the place the boys had been hitting the bong!
Undertaking CBD: What about recruitment biases? How had been the check topics chosen for the bong examine?
Elmes: The paper offers no particulars about how the researchers had been permitted to run recruitment for a ‘non-human’ examine. I feel that a teen preferring bongs is normally the extra heavy-smoking, stereotypical type of pothead. We all know next-to-nothing about how this experiment was run, nor do the experimenters apparently because the contributors weren’t immediately noticed and even supplied with any directions.
Undertaking CBD: Had been the bongs clear and the way a lot was smoked?
Elmes: Appears like they in all probability weren’t clear since contributors supplied their very own glassware. Any seasoned pot-smoker is aware of that resin quickly builds up in glassware. Is a few of the particulate matter being detected really from previous smoke classes? Smoking from a unclean bowl feels harsher on the throat, so there are probably chemical variations between smoking simply hashish versus reheating hashish tar.
The supplemental strategies part of the paper signifies that “5-8 bowls had been smoked per [bong] session.” However the experimenters don’t really understand how a lot hashish was smoked. I’d say {that a} small bowl in all probability accommodates about 0.1g hashish, and a big bowl has extra like 0.8g. This offers us a particularly extensive potential vary of ~0.5g-6.5g of hashish smoked per session. Nonetheless, it’s value noting that the common tobacco smoker usually burns rather more plant matter than a hashish smoker. One tobacco cigarette equals 1 gram of tobacco. So, a pack-a-day smoker is smoking 20g of plant matter per day. Even heavy potheads don’t smoke this a lot hashish.
Undertaking CBD: So, what conclusions might be drawn from this?
Elmes: Regardless of the excessive security profile of hashish, smoking it’s not with out dangers. Inhaling plenty of combusted plant matter is just not wholesome it doesn’t matter what plant it’s. Nonetheless, to my thoughts, the one largest public well being concern concerning publicity to second-hand tobacco smoke is the well-documented neck, throat, and lung most cancers threat. This shouldn’t be a lot of a priority with second-hand hashish smoke contemplating that hashish smoke and tobacco smoke aren’t equally carcinogenic. Whereas the decision should be out over whether or not hashish has the potential to be clinically useful within the therapy of sure cancers, we have already got enough proof to moderately conclude that hashish is a minimum of not inflicting these cancers. If a lifetime of firsthand hashish smoke doesn’t correlate to improvement of head, throat, neck or lung cancers, then I feel there may be little motive to imagine that secondhand publicity to hashish smoke has this potential.
Maybe hashish does produce extra <2.5µm particulate matter than tobacco. I’m not essentially satisfied of that conclusion from this paper, however their knowledge does level in that path and it’s definitely attainable. At face-value this might seem like much less wholesome, however it’s not essentially so. The dimensions of the airborne particles is just not the only real determinant of well being outcomes, their composition additionally issues. One must be cautious of over-interpreting knowledge from a ‘non-human’ observational examine like this and linking it to well being results. Merely measuring airborne particles close to an unknown variety of individuals smoking a bong is nowhere close to enough to attract any medical conclusions in anyway!
Dr. Matt Elmes is a cannabinoid scientist and hashish fanatic. His PhD and postdoctoral work targeted on the biochemistry of cannabinoids and he made impactful analysis contributions previous to transitioning to a non-academic profession within the California hashish trade.
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