TOXICOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
TOXICOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Science is the basis of TRUSTiCERT efforts to guide its customers
in placing safe products on the market.
Science is the basis of TRUSTiCERT efforts to guide its customers
in placing safe products on the market.
Managing a company aimed to protect the environment, a project was launched in 2012 to estimate the environmental impact of electronic cigarettes, compared to traditional cigarettes. A little later we realized how significant it could be and we moved on to the next question: which is the toxicological impact on humans? The answer would have suggested if the electronic cigarette could have been a new vice, a fad, or a healthier way out of the deadly tobacco smoke.
It was 2013 when we looked for the best skills in inhalation toxicology available at European research centers. Thus we found several specialized teams, with which we began a series of preliminary interactions. It was clear that the technologies of exposure of the cells and measurement of the effects of pollutants on cells were already available, but the part of production of the steam in a controlled regime was completely missing. So we started building a first version of our vaping machine.
Thanks to a conspicuous financing of an Italian company (today world leader in aromas for electronic cigarettes) we activated several research projects in a regime of authentic public-private collaboration. It was born one of the most ambitious and innovative private programs in the sector: ClearStream Onward.
Today we expose cells of different types to the vapors of electronic cigarettes subjected to different regimes and topologies, with immersion systems or air-liquid interface. Molecular assays of cytotoxicity, genotoxicity and mutagenicity are performed and several biomarkers have been tested. The whole program has been developed under the Tox21 paradigm.
Our methods are the subject of scientific publications, currently in the validation phase, and they have aroused the interest of regulatory authorities of different nations.
Today we aspire to share our skills with the most important regulatory authorities and on the tables of the international technical commissions, with the aim of contributing to the construction of new standards for toxicological assessment of vaping emissions.