PAHs in cigarette smoke by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Tobacco smoke is a major source of human exposure to carcinogenic pollutants, especially polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Our capacity to metabolise and so biologically activate PAHs from both tobacco smoke and occupational exposure puts us at even greater risk for PAH-related cancers, especially certain respiratory cancers. The techniques most used for determining pollutants in environmental or biological samples are GC-MS and HPLC methods. In the present work a GC-MS has been used in both the scan and SIM mode to characterise the organic compounds adsorbed on a charcoal cartridge comparable with the conventional cigarette filter or other types of cigarette. Charcoal cigarette filters and normal filters were compared. A method for quantitative determination of naphthalene, phenanthrene and anthracene in urine or in cigarette smoke was validated and tested. A Thermo Finnigan Trace gas chromatograph coupled with a Trace DSQ mass spectrometer was used. The chromatograms were obtained on a fused silica capillary column Rtx-5MS, (15m x 0.25mm id) 0.25 mu m using 2 temperature programmes.