Chemical Studies on Tobacco Smoke. XLIX. Gas Chromatographic Determination of Hydrogen Cyanide and Cyanogen in Tobacco Smoke1

Abstract

Sensitive methods for the gas chromatographic determination of hydrogen cyanide end cyanogen in cigarette and cigar smoke are described. The HCN method is based upon the conversion of cyanide to cyanogen chloride by chloramine-T. Cyanogen chloride, dissolved in n-hexane, is analyzed by gas chromatography using an electron capture detector. Particulate matter and gas phase are analyzed separately. The relative standard deviation is less than 5% (total HCN) in the smoke of a commercial cigarette with HCN concentration above 50 µ g/cigarette. The mainstream smoke of the standard cigarette (85 mm, without filter tip) contains 479 µ g hydrogen cyanide whereas in mainstream smoke of plain cigarettes, filter cigarettes, little cigars, cigars and a marijuana cigarette HCN values range from 279 to 551 µ g. Sidestream smoke of filter and nonfilter cigarettes and little cigars contains between 87 and 134 µ g HCN; a marijuana cigarette yielded 191 µg HCN in the sidestream. For the cyanogen determination the cigarettes and little cigars are smoked through a glass fiber filter and the gas phase is analyzed by GLC using dual gas sampling loops. The smoke of the cigarettes and little cigars fasted contains between 12 and 20 µg of (CN)₂. These amounts contribute only insignificantly to the HCN yields obtained by the above method. In the case of cigars (nonporous wrapper), we found that between 9 end 26% of the determined HCN was derived from the cyanogen in the smoke.