Development of a standardized new cigarette smoke generating (SNCSG) system for the assessment of chemicals in the smoke of new cigarette types (heat-not-burn (HNB) tobacco and electronic cigarettes (E-Cigs))

Abstract

To systematically regulate new types of cigarettes for which their safety has yet to be verified, such as heat-not-burn (HNB) products and electronic cigarettes (E-Cigs), the identification of chemicals in the new cigarette smoke is necessary. However, this is challenging due to the large number of new cigarette types and their different vaporization approaches. To address this issue, we herein report the development of a standardized new cigarette smoke generating (SNCSG) system based on heating-temperature control, which is able to generate smoke for all types of new cigarettes. Validation of the developed system was also carried out through analysis of the carbonyl compounds (e.g., formaldehyde and acetaldehyde) in the new cigarette smoke of HNB products and E-Cigs generated by the SNCSG system under different heating temperatures. The analytical results were used to validate the SNCSG system by comparison with those of previous studies. In all new cigarette smoke samples, the formaldehyde and acetaldehyde concentrations increased dramatically upon increasing the heating temperatures, especially over the reference heating range of each HNB device (mean concentration (μg/cigarette, n = 5 (HNB and E-Cig samples)): formaldehyde = 0.373-5.841 (250-320 °C), and acetaldehyde = 0.088-27.60 (250-320 °C). In the case of the HNB samples, the concentration differences determined by the heating temperatures of the tobacco stick were statistically significant, with p-values (ANOVA) of 1.85E-10 (formaldehyde) and 1.73E-08 (acetaldehyde). In the majority of smoke samples, acrolein and propionaldehyde were detected under relatively high heating temperature conditions (>250 °C) at 0.50 ± 1.76 μg/(cigarette or 10 μL), while acetone was detected under low heating temperature conditions (<250 °C) at 0.09 ± 0.17 μg/(cigarette or 10 μL). These results indicate that the developed SNCSG system could be suitable for application in the regulation of new types of cigarettes, regardless of the cigarette type and heating approach.

Keywords: Carbonyl group; Electronic cigarette (E-cig); Heat-not-burn (HNB); Standardized new cigarette smoke generating (SNCSG) system; Tobacco.