The levels of potentially harmful compounds in mainstream cigarette smoke such as aromatic amines (AAs) have been of interest for many years. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) has previously been the most popular method for determination of AAs in cigarette smoke however the extraction and derivatisation procedure is complex and time-consuming. LC-MS/MS, with higher selectivity and sensitivity, permits a simplified clean-up procedure to be used. With increasing legislation more aromatic amines may be added to existing regulations and a simpler LC-MS/MS procedure has more flexibility to accommodate this requirement.

Four aromatic amines (1-AN, 2-AN, 3-AB, 4-AB) are required for Brazilian ANVISA and Health Canada regulations and o-anisidine, o-toluidine, 2,6-dimethylaniline and eight heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs: A-α-C, IQ, MeA-α-C, Trp-P-2, Trp-P-1, PhIP, Glu-P-1, Glu-P-2) have been cited by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHC) in tobacco smoke. A single smoking and extraction method followed by LC-MS/MS methods for the analysis of all fifteen aromatic amines will be presented.

Some HAAs have not been detected in reference cigarettes so transfer rates were evaluated by spiking components into the tobacco rod and collecting the smoke condensate on a Cambridge filter pad.

The procedure has also been shown to be applicable to sidestream smoke and e-cigarette vapour. Data will be presented for cigarette and e-cigarette products.