Analysis of pyridines in mainstream cigarette smoke

A new technique has been developed for the quantitative analysis of pyridines in mainstream cigarette smoke using a GC-MS technique. For analysis, 10 cigarettes are smoked using conditions based on US Federal Trade Commission recommendations. The smoke is collected in a water trap and analyzed using a GC-MS technique. A standard or a fast GC separation can be applied for the analysis. The standard separation was followed by MS detection using selected ion monitoring (SIM) acquisition on a quadrupole instrument. The fast GC was followed by MS detection with total ion acquisition on a time-of-flight instrument. The levels of pyridine depend on the type of cigarette: for a full flavor cigarette pyridine is as high as 18.0 microg/cigarette (cig.). and for an ultra light cigarette is about 3.0 microg/cig. Substituted pyridines vary between 5.0 microg/cig. to 0.1 microg/cig. for a full flavor cigarette, and between 0.2 microg/cig. and a few ng/cig. for an ultra light cigarette. The reproducibility of the technique is very good, with less than 7-8% RSD in both separation procedures for most of the analyzed compounds.