The Premarket Tobacco Product Application (PMTA) process for ENDS recommends that a wide range of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Compounds (HPHCs) be determined to support the application. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) provides guidance specifying the number of constituents and chemicals that should be included for analysis. However, no guidance is provided on appropriate analytical methodologies or test procedures for the determination of these HPHCs. One such chemical, glycidol, was recently added to the HPHC list of ENDS. Glycidol is a thermal degradant of glycerine and is potentially formed at temperatures achievable during gas chromatography (GC) sample analysis.

In this study, we investigated two different techniques for the determination of glycidol in e-liquid via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS): 1) Direct injection of the sample, 2). Derivatization of glycidol to form a stable compound. Differences between the two methods would indicate if artefactual glycidol was formed with direct injection method.

Glycidol was measured in two JUUL e-liquids, Royal Crème 3% and Royal Crème 5%, and was found to be 8.43 µg/g and 7.71 µg/g, respectively, by direct injection versus 0.14 µg/g and 0.13 µg/g, respectively, for the derivatization method. These results indicate that direct GC analysis can lead to the formation of relevant levels of glycidol. The derivatization method was found to be more selective and offered improved sensitivity versus the direct injection analysis method.