| Abstract
| - Mainstream cigarette smoke is a complex aerosolcontaining more than 4400 chemicals. The proliferation ofnew brands has necessitated development of fasterand more reliable methods capable of analyzing a widerange of compounds in cigarette smoke. Although theInternational Agency for Research on Cancer has classifiedwhole cigarette smoke as a human carcinogen, many ofthe individual chemicals are themselves highly biologicallyactive as carcinogens, teratogens, or have implicationsfor cardiovascular disease. Among these chemicals aremany volatile organic compounds (VOCs), e.g., benzene,ethylbenzene, and styrene. To analyze VOCs in mainstreamcigarette smoke, we developed a novel headspacecollection technique using polyvinylfluoride bags for samplecollection followed by cannula transfer to evacuatedstandard 20-mL auto sampler vials. Coupling collection ofthe vapor-phase cigarette smoke with automated analysisby solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry enabled us to routinely quantify selectedVOCs in mainstream cigarette smoke. This technique hassimilar reproducibility to previous cold trap and impingercollection methods with significantly higher samplethroughput and virtually no solvent waste. In this reportwe demonstrate the method's analytical capabilitiesby quantitatively analyzing 13 selected VOCs in mainstreamcigarette smoke from top-selling domestic brands.
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