Marcilla, Antonio, Gómez-Siurana, Amparo, Beltrán, Maribel, Martínez Castellanos, Isabel
Reduction of toxic compounds present in the mainstream of tobacco smoke by the use of zeolites
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/8532
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Abstract: 
The consequence of smoking cigarettes has been a global problem with serious effects on human health, and with significant impact on the public health departments. Cigarette smoke contains many toxic and carcinogenic compounds which are inhaled by active and passive smokers to that point that tobacco is the first major cause of death in the world. More than 4,000 individual compounds have been identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke. Among these, about 60 compounds are toxic and carcinogens. Some of these compounds are tar, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, acetaldehyde, phenols, acetone, formaldehyde, benzene, toluene, and nicotine.
Therefore different methods and additives have been suggested and studied with the purpose of reducing the toxicity of the tobacco smoke. In this work, the effect of different commercial zeolites (ZSM-5, USY and Beta) on the composition of the tobacco smoke has been studied.
These studies have been carried out in a  smoking machine desined and construded according with normalized assays, in order to simulate the smoking process and to generate the streams of smoke and the condensed fraction which are inhalated by the smokers. Different analytical techniques have been used for the chemical analysis of such fractions. The results obtained show that these zeolites act as catalysts for the pyrolysis and combustion process involved in the smoking act, and provoke a noticiable modification of the composition of the mainstream smoke and of the condensated fraction retained in the filters. Moreover, significant reductions in the amounts present of CO, CO2, total particulate matter (TPM), benzene, and other compounds toxic and carcinogenic have been observed.
Keywords:Tobacco, Toxicity, Reduction
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