The recent FDA publication of a list of harmful and potentially harmful constituents has resulted in the development of a number of new or revised analytical methods for tobacco smoke chemistry. Analysis of the title compounds was achieved by extending an existing method used for the analysis of some semi-volatiles (Health Canada T-112).

Mainstream smoke was passed through a collection pad followed by two cryogenic traps (impingers) containing methanol. After addition of internal standard, the pad was extracted with the combined trapping solutions. The determination of benzo[b]furan and nitrobenzene was achieved by extending the existing GC/MS method analysis parameters, utilizing styrene-d8 and quinoline-d7 as internal standards. The analysis of acetamide and acrylamide required an independent GC/MS run of the sample extract, using selective ion monitoring with acetamide-d3 and acrylamide-d3 as internal standards.

This extended method was used to investigate the emissions from a series of twelve products that included a small cigar, a cigarillo and the Kentucky Reference 3R4F cigarette. These products were smoked under three smoking regimens defined by puff volume (mL), duration (seconds), frequency (seconds) and vent blocking (%); 35/2/60/0% (ISO), 55/2/30/100% (Canadian Intense (CI)), 60/2/30/50% (ISO/TC 126 WG 9 Option B (WG9B)). In all cases, nitrobenzene was determined to be below the method detection limit (LOD) of 0.013 µg/cig (ISO) and 0.027 µg/cig (CI and WG9B). Benzo[b]furan yields ranged from 0.048 to 2.23 µg/cig (LOD = 0.015 (ISO), 0.030 (CI and WG9B)). Acetamide and acrylamide yields ranged from 0.100 to 78.4 µg/cig (LOD = 0.049 (ISO), 0.099 (CI and WG9B)) and 0.060 to 14.2 µg/cig (LOD = 0.031 (ISO), 0.062 (CI and WG9B)) respectively.

The relationship between constituent yield and tar was basically linear for the emissions of cigarettes used in the study. However yields for the ‘little’ cigar and cigarillo were obviously different from those of the cigarettes in the study.