These 110 Toxic Chemicals in Cannabis Smoke Could be Hazardous, Say U of A Researchers

Article by Angela Stelmakowich, Growth Op

Engineering researchers at the University of Alberta are saying two things about cannabis smoke: it poses a potential health risk, and more study is needed to get a fix on what the potential risks might be.

Tobacco and cannabis “smoke particles are quantitatively similar in volatility, shape, density and number concentration, albeit with differences in size, total mass and chemical composition,” notes the study abstract. “This study demonstrates striking similarities between marijuana and tobacco smoke in terms of their physical and chemical properties.”

Using a so-called smoking machine to draw the desired volume of smoke from an unfiltered joint and a filtered cigarette, the U of A researchers observed 2,575 chemical compounds in weed smoke, could identify 536 of those and know that 110 are toxic, meaning carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic (can interfere with development of the embryo of fetus).

At 173, cigarette smoke had more identified toxic chemicals, according to Folio. Still, cannabis smoke particles were 29 per cent bigger and a typical joint had 3.4 times more mass from particulate matter than a cigarette.

Why would size and weight matter?

“With some caveats, that mass is what you consider tar,” notes Robert Nishida, a post-doctoral fellow and study co-lead, reports Folio. Particle size, for its part, will determine where the particles and their associated chemicals end up being deposited.

That could be the throat, the upper airway or the alveoli, air sacks that are arranged in clusters throughout the lungs and whose function is to “exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide molecules to and from the bloodstream.”

A study out of McMaster University earlier this year found that consuming cannabis may, indeed, be safer than tobacco. But that advantage gave way once weed was combusted.

Read the full article here.