The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Phenols are important toxic constituents of tobacco smoke. Phenols can cause neurotoxic and irritating effect to human body. Some phenols like eg. o-cresol, catechol and hydroquinone are suspected human carcinogens. The aim of the work was to measure levels of phenolic compounds in both, main- and sidestream tobacco smoke generated from cigarettes commercially available in Poland.

Methods: Cigarettes were smoked in a smoking machine with standard conditions (puff volume 35 ml; puff duration 2 sec, intervals between puffs 60 sec). Main- and sidestream smoke were washed in Drexel's bottles, each containing 5% NaOH. The extract of absorbed phenols was acidified. Then phenolic fraction was extracted using SPE with columns packed with 1 g of Chromosorb 105. Phenols were eluted with 5 ml of benzene and concentrated to 0.2 ml with rotary evaporator. 1 ėl of the obtained solution was analyzed with Varian 3800 gas chromatograph equipped with flame ionization detector FID and a capillary column CP-Sil 8CB, 25m x 1,2ėm (Varian Inc., USA).

Results: The following phenols were analyzed: phenol, o-cresol, p- and m-cresol (together), guaiacol, 2-ethylphenol, 3- and 4-ethylphenol (together), catechol, resorcinol, hydroquinone, 1-naphtol and 2-napthol. The levels of phenols in mainstream smoke varied from 0.06 (catechol in LM Menthol) to 23.02 ėg/cigarette (phenol in Jan III Sobieski Full Flavour) and in sidestream smoke from 0.05 (2-naphtol in Jan III Sobieski Super Lights) to 106.50 ėg/cigarette (phenol in Jan III Sobieski Full Falvor). Smoke from low-nicotine cigarettes contains reduced level of phenols.