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CORESTA Meeting, Smoke Science/Product Technology, 2019, Hamburg, STPOST 69 (also presented at TSRC 2019)

Within brand and across brand content and variability of nicotine and tobacco-specific nitrosamines in eight commercial U.S. cigar brands

GILLMAN I.G.; HULLDRUP J.P.; BROOKS K.N.L.
Enthalpy Analytical, LLC, Richmond, VA, U.S.A.

The recent 2016 deeming of cigars by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has led to an increased interest in cigar science, including ways to accurately measure the harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) found within cigar tobacco. However, there are few published studies on HPHCs in cigar filler and even less is known about the cigar to cigar variability of HPHCs in cigar filler tobacco. In this study we attempted to quantify the variability of nicotine and TSNAs (NNN, NNK, NAT, NAB) in cigar filler on a per cigar basis, from both machine-made and premium cigars. Eight total brands were analyzed.

Cigars were individually conditioned, weighed, and ground. Tobacco from each cigar was analyzed in triplicate for nicotine and NNN, NNK, NAT, and NAB content (by GC-FID and LC-MS/MS, respectively). Analytical results were reported on a per gram basis and corrected to a per cigar basis using the original cigar weight.

On a per gram basis, the level of nicotine present in the products ranged from 0.75 to 1.80 % with an average variability of 9.5 % for the analysis of 10 cigars per brand. The amount of nicotine per cigar ranged from 17.9 to 232.6 mg with an average variability of 12.3 %. Premium (long-leaf) cigars showed the highest amount of nicotine variability at 20.2 %.

On a per gram basis, the total amount of TSNA present in the products ranged from 7.8 to 55.9 µg/g with an average per brand variability of 23.7 %, for the analysis of 10 cigars per brand. The amount of total TSNA per cigar ranged from 18.4 to 585.5 µg with an average per brand variability of 24.2 %. Individual TSNA variation ranged from 14.4 to 61.3 % across all brands tested.