“The commercially-available cigarettes that we tested were chock full of bacteria, as we had hypothesized, but we didn’t think we’d find so many that are infectious in humans, explains Sapkota, who holds a joint appointment with the University’s Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health and the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.
“If these organisms can survive the smoking process—and we believe they can—then they could possibly go on to contribute to both infectious and chronic illnesses in both smokers and individuals who are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke,” Sapkota adds. “So it’s critical that we learn more about the bacterial content of cigarettes, which are used by more than a billion people worldwide.”
Link here. Researchers from the Ecole Centrale de Lyon were also involved.