Comparison of the content of tobacco alkaloids and tobacco-specific nitrosamines in ‘heat-not-burn’ tobacco products before and after aerosol generation

Abstract

Standardized methods for collecting smoke and for measuring smoke components in heat not burn tobacco product (HTP) are yet to be established, and there is a lack of consensus as to whether the content of HTP cigarettes can be assayed in the same manner as for conventional cigarettes. Since HTPcigarettes do not generate ash when smoked, we compared the levels of tobacco alkaloids (TAs) and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) of HTP cigarettes before and after aerosol generation. HTP cigarettes were smoked according to two international standardization methods. The TAs and TSNAs contents of the cigarettes were analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF and UPLC-MSMS, respectively. Smoking was found to significantly decrease the content of nicotine, nornicotine, anatabine, and anabasine by 53 ∼ 100% in all samples, and the maximum inhalable amounts of these entities were determined to be 4.24 mg/cig, 103.52 μg/cig, 258.72 μg/cig, and 33.03 μg/cig, respectively. By contrast, smoking significantly increased the content of NNK and NAB. we suggested that the reduced nicotine content minus the nicotine content remaining in the filter is an amount that could potentially be inhaled during smoking. The increase of NNK and NAB in HTP cigarette after aerosol generation is expected to be caused by the precursor, but more specific behavioral studies should be performed.

Keywords:

• Heat not burn product
• tobacco alkaloids
• tobacco-specific nitrosamine

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea for providing tobacco sample.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.