Characterization of the mainstream smoke obtained by smoking different presentation forms of commercial tobacco samples

Abstract

The smoking cigarette process causes the appearance of two streams, the mainstream and the sidestream smoke. The mainstream smoke is the smoke inhaled and exhaled by smokers directly from tobacco products and the mixture of gases passing down the tobacco rod and continue through the filter end. This stream crosses the primary filter and it is exhaled by the smoker. This stream, together to the less volatile compounds which condense in the lung of the smokers are the main responsible of the tobacco toxicity. For the realization of experiments, the cigarettes have been smoked in a smoking machine, where five cigarettes were smoked simultaneously following specifications of the ISO 3308, at 23 ºC and 60% relative humidity. During the smoking process the smoke (CO, CO2 and non condensable products) cross the filter end, and then are collected in a Tedlar bag. The condensable products are retained on the cigarette filter and on a trap located after the cigarette, and can be extracted with isopropanol and analyzed. The determination of CO, CO2 has been carried at GC-TCD and the rest of components –i.e. the not-condensable and condensable products– have been analyzed by GC-FID and GC-MS, respectively. In this work, three commercial trademarks of different presentation forms of tobacco, i.e., cigarette, roll tobacco and pipe tobacco, have been selected and smoked in order to obtain the complete characterization of the respective mainstream smoke.