Review of cigars and cigar-type products as potential sources of consumer exposure to heavy metals

Abstract

The popularity of cigars, growing since 1993, has not gone hand in hand with the increased interest of researchers in these products. Although the literature widely describes the harmfulness of tobacco and the content of toxic substances in tobacco products, the topic is often treated selectively as relating primarily to cigarettes and rarely extends to other products of the broadly defined tobacco industry. However, there is no reason to marginalize the harmful effects of other nicotine products, (which include tobacco products such as cigars). The study analyzed the available literature on the content of selected heavy metals in cigar tobacco. Among the heavy metals, the following contents of elements in tobacco were recorded in cigars: Fe (420–2200 µg/g), Mn (100–370 µg/g), Zn (14–180 µg/g), Cu (15–140 µg/g), Pb (not detected–32 µg/g), Cd (nd–19 µg/g), Ni (nd–13 µg/g), Cr (nd–10 µg/g), Co (0.65–1.0 µg/g), As (nd–0.66 µg/g), Hg (18–25 ng/g). Importantly, the values often differ between cigars of different origins and types, indicating the need for more extensive research.

Highlights

• Despite the increased interest of consumers, research on the elemental analysis of cigars is rare

• Based on the analysis of the literature, it was noticed that cigar tobacco may differ significantly in heavy metals content such as: Pb, Cd, Ni, Cr

• The level of metal contamination is likely related to the origin and growth environment of the tobacco

• Monitoring the level of heavy metal contamination of all tobacco products is important for the health of their consumers

Keywords:

• Cigars
• heavy metals
• tobacco
• trace analysis

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Richard J. O'Connor, Professor of Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, a co-author of one of the works, for providing accurate results of the research used in the publication.

We would like to thank MSc Ilona Stabrawa from the Institute of Physics of Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce for help in obtaining accurate research results from publications.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclosure statement

Authors have no financial or non-financial interests that are directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.