Determination of Hydroxybenzenes in Exhaled Cigarette Smoke

This study describes the results regarding the evaluation of retention efficiency by humans of hydroxybenzenes (phenols) from mainstream cigarette smoke. Over twenty phenols were evaluated in the exhaled smoke of a commercial cigarette with 10.6 mg ‘tar’ [U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ‘tar’ is defined as the weight of total particulate matter minus nicotine and water]. The test was performed on ten human subjects. The exhaled smoke was collected using a vacuum assisted technique that avoids strain in exhaling the smoke. The study showed that the phenols were retained with high efficiency from cigarette smoke, typically above 80%. Only 4-ethylresorcinol, and C₃-dihydroxybenzenes (C₃ indicating any alkyl with three carbon atoms) were retained less efficiently with retention values around 70%. The high retention of this class of compounds was expected since phenols are polar compounds with relatively low molecular weights between 94 (for phenol) and 152 (for a propyl-dihydroxybenzene).