Alkaloids in environmental tobacco smoke-filled rooms

Considering the importance of alkaloids in tobacco smoke, their presence was evaluated in real work environments. Sampling was carried out with fixed pumps and eventual degradation of the alkaloids during collection and storage until analysis was tested. A quantification method with an alternative internal standard (quinaldine) was evaluated and proposed. Offices and leisure rooms with high smoking intensity were chosen in order to detect minor alkaloids. The correlation between the environmental tobacco smoke markers - nicotine, 3-ethenylpyridine and myosmine - and the minor compounds was evaluated and all R² were higher than 0.538. Nicotine levels quantified in the office rooms ranged from 0.02 to 64.67pg/m³ and a maximum of 129.33pg/m³ was found in one leisure room with very high smoking intensity. Myosnline and nicotyrine were the most abundant minor alkaloids and very high contents were. quantified in the leisure room mentioned previously.