American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recently revised their definition of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS)
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On February 12 2015, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) recently revised their definition of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in Addendum “C” for Standard 62.1 “Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality” to include e-cigarettes. This standard expands the recommendation to ban tobacco smoking indoors to include the use of e-cigarettes and cannabis indoors. ASHRAE’s ventilation standards are widely adopted into the building codes throughout the United States as well as in other countries. This addendum is in line with efforts to limit the use of e-cigarettes in indoor environments. Therefore, the addendum clarifies that ETS, including e-cigarettes and cannabis, is not within the acceptable indoor air quality standards. The revised ETS definition states: “the “aged” and diluted combination of both side-stream smoke (smoke from the lit end of a cigarette or other tobacco product) and exhaled mainstream smoke (smoke that is exhaled by a smoker). ETS is commonly referred to as secondhand smoke. This definition includes smoke produced from the combustion of cannabis and controlled substances and the emissions produced by electronic smoking devices.”