Characterization of trace organic compounds associated with aged and diluted sidestream tobacco smoke in a controlled atmosphere - volatile organic compounds and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

摘要

In this study, a wide range of volatile organic constituents of aged and diluted sidestream tobacco smoke (ADSS) were determined in a controlled atmosphere, where ADSS is the sole source of target compounds. The ADSS was generated in a 30 m(3) environmental test chamber using a variety of cigarettes, including the Kentucky 1R4F reference cigarette and eight commercial brands, and a total of 24 experimental runs were conducted. Target analytes were divided into three groups, i.e. vapor and particulate phase markers for environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), volatile organic compounds (VOC) including carbonyls, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The VOC samples were collected on triple sorbent traps, and then analyzed by thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), while the carbonyl compounds were sampled on DNPH cartridges, being analyzed by HPLC. ETS particles in the chamber were collected by high volume sampling, and then used for the determination of PAHs by GC/MS. Among more than 30 target VOCs, acetaldehyde appeared to be the most abundant compound, followed by 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene, and formaldehyde. The results from the chamber study were further used to generate characterized ratios of selected VOCs to 3-ethenyl pyridine (3-EP), a vapor phase ETS marker. The ratios appeared to be in generally good agreement with published values in the literature. This suggests that the characteristic ratios may be useful for quantifying the impact of ETS on the VOC concentrations in 'real world' indoor environments, which are affected by a complex mixture of components from multiple sources. The yields of ETS markers from this study are all slightly lower than those estimated by other studies, while VOC yields are in reasonable agreement in many cases with values in the literature. Among 16 target PAHs, chrysene appeared to be most abundant, followed by benzo(a)anthracene (BaA) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP). The average contents of BaP and BaA in ADSS particles for the commercial brands were 12.8 and 21.5 mug g(-1), respectively. These values are all approximately 1.5-3 times higher than those determined previously by other studies. The average yields of BaP per cigarette were estimated to be 209 and 215 ng for the reference and commercial cigarettes, respectively. Comparison of the PAH data from this study with literature values was complicated by a lack of consistency in cigarette smoke generating methodology among other studies. These data on the cigarette yields of ETS components may provide useful information to studies on the mathematical modeling of indoor air quality regarding tobacco smoke as a source of interest, or to studies on the assessment of human exposure to ETS. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.