Automated determination of hydrogen cyanide acrolein and total aldehydes in the gas phase of tobacco smoke

For some time there has been wordwide concern for the health risks of cigarette smoking. In several countries, including the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, surveys of the tar and nicotine delivered by commercial brands of cigarettes are carried out and published. Recently carbon monoxide levels have also been measured. The combustion of tobacco products such as cigarettes also produces three major ciliatoxic components, namely hydrogen cyanide (HCN), formaldehyde and acrolein ]. As in the case of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide, the detection of statistically significant differences requires the results of from 10 to 30 analyses per brand per chemical parameter at several points in time; as a consequence, the use of automated chemical analyses is advantageous. Individual automated colorimetric methods have been published for HCN, acrolein and total aldehydes using AutoAnalyser II techniques; however, the simultaneous determination of all three from a single sample has not been attempted due, in part, to the fact that different gas scrubbing agents and diluents must be used for each analyte. Selection of a single efficient scrubbing agent and the introduction of on-line dilution facilitate the simultaneous determination of the amount of HCN, acrolein and total aldehydes (mainly acetaldehyde) delivered by various brands of cigarettes. This improves the overall laboratory efficiency and minimises the manual effort in the analytical methodology. Table 1. Estimates of precision from the automated determination of hydrogen cyanide, acrolein and total aldehydes in standard aqueous solution and in methanolic extracts of the gas phase from a Canadian reference cigarette.