Abstract
Cigarette testing regulations based on more intensive puffing conditions than standard Federal Trade Commission/International Organisation for Standardization (FTC/ISO) conditions, together with intentional filter vent-blocking of cigarettes during testing, are currently required in some countries. Recently, an initial recommendation under the auspices of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, has called for international machine-testing of cigarettes with a 55 cc/30 s/2 s puffing regimen after 100% filter vent-blocking. While much is currently known regarding changes in smoke yields with different machine smoking parameters, a more limited understanding of potential changes in smoke composition exists. In the present work, the influence of smoking conditions on nicotine fate in a burning cigarette was studied by gas chromatography with atomic emission detection (GC-AED) using core-injected nicotine-d4. Tobacco rods were injected via a syringe to a fixed length with a constant volume of a methanol solution of known concentration of deuterated nicotine. Four different puffing conditions and two different vent-blocking conditions were studied. GC with mass spectrometric detection was used to identify the deuterium-labeled compounds that gave an enhanced deuterium AED-response. A comparison of the distribution of compounds containing deuterium in the mainstream smoke, sidestream smoke, and cigarette remains (butt and ash) of a full flavor cigarette brand under the four smoking conditions studied indicated that a greater percentage of labeled nicotine remained intact during the smoking process as the intensity of the puffing regimen increased. As smoking regimen intensity increased, the amounts of nicotine pyrolysis and oxidation products detected in sidestream smoke decreased, while marginal increases in these compounds were observed in mainstream smoke and in the cigarette butt. The sidestream/mainstream nicotine ratio decreased significantly as smoking intensity increased. Small amounts of intact nicotine were observed in the sidestream vapor phase; however, nicotine was not observed in mainstream vapor phase samples.