Mass characterisation of elemental toxicants in popular cigarettes sale in Pakistan using ICP-OES

ABSTRACT

Environmental pollution and public health risks increase due to elevated metal levels in cigarettes throughout the globe especially in the developing countries. Herein, study is carried out to investigate the heavy metals and rare earth element contents in the popular cigarette brands (local and imported) in Pakistan. Twenty-six elements are measured in cigarette, tobacco, wrapping paper and filter (n = 168) sold in the Pakistan market in 14 brands of cigarettes using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The mean concentrations of Cr, V, Mo, Ni, Sn, As, Sb, Fe, Al, Mg, Ti and B (8.30, 0.22, 0.45, 1.85, 4.63, 1.32, 0.89, 378.01, 180.18, 2134.21, 6.53 & 22.20 μg/g), respectively, are slightly higher in local cigarette brands and the mean concentration of Co, Cd, Pb, Se, Sr, Mn, Cu, Zn, Ca, K, Na, Y, Zr and Ba (0.49, 0.69, 1.58, 1.47, 71.03, 68.23, 32.69, 32.33, 2906.82, 7601.73, 962.31, 0.10, 1.04 & 35.19 μg/g), respectively, are slightly higher in imported cigarette brands. The concentrations of Pb, Ni, Cd, Co, Fe and Zn in local tobacco cigarettes are approximately comparable to concentration levels of metals in imported tobacco cigarettes sold in other countries. While a strong positive correlation was observed in Cr, Sn, Mn, Ba, Ni, Co, As and Sr, while K, Mo, Ti, Ca and Mo were negatively associated with other elements. In addition, this study also provides an important information on the elemental levels such as alkali metals (Na & K), alkaline rare earth metals (Mg, Ca, Sr & Ba), transition metals (Ti, V, Mo, Y & Zr), post-transition metals (Sn), metalloids (B & As) and reactive non-metal (Se) for the very first time in Pakistan in different components of cigarettes. We believe that this study will be beneficial to the prevention of public health hazards and the reduction of human health risks through tobacco consumption.

KEYWORDS:

• Heavy metals
• toxicity
• tobacco
• cigarette
• wrapping paper

Acknowledgments

Authors are thankful to University of Lahore, BNU Sukkur, BZU University, Multan and Chinese academy of Sciences China for research and financial supports.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2022.2120394