Development of a Method for Simultaneous Analysis of Allergenic Flavoring Agents in Cigarettes and Quantitative Risk Assessment for Consumer Safety.

Dae Yong Jang,Hyung Soo Kim,Dal Woong Choi,Ye Ji Koo,Kyung Min Lim,Eun Chul Pack

doi:10.3390/toxics9040087

Abstract

Flavoring agents are added to cigarettes to improve taste. There are mostly permitted food additives, but some of them are restricted for use in food, cosmetics, and toys, since they can cause allergic reactions. Previous studies have investigated the levels of flavoring agents in tobacco but none has focused on their content in filter tips and capsules. Moreover, no studies have assessed the risk of adding allergenic flavoring agents in cigarettes. Here, we developed and validated a simultaneous analysis method for 25 allergenic flavoring agents and menthol with gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry to determine levels of flavoring agents in the tobacco, filter tips, and capsules of 54 commercial cigarettes in Korea. All cigarettes contained at least one allergenic flavoring agent regardless of the inclusion of flavoring capsules. Importantly, the filter tips and the capsules contained higher levels of flavoring agents than tobacco, highlighting the importance of the quantification of flavoring agents in these parts of cigarettes. Nevertheless, the risk assessment based on their levels in cigarettes suggested that their exposure was maintained at a safe level. However, the risk assessed from maximum menthol, linalool, and cinnamaldehyde exceeded one-tenth of derived no-effect levels, suggesting the need for further studies on their risk to human health.

Highlights

Flavored tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, hookah tobacco, and several types of smokeless tobacco, have been gaining popularity especially among youths
We developed and validated a gas chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) method to simultaneously analyze 25 allergenic flavoring agents and menthol in tobacco, filter tips, and capsules in cigarettes
The method developed here was validated with respect to linearity, limit of detection (LOD), method detection limit (MDL), method developed with respect to linearity, LOD,and

Summary

Introduction

Flavored tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigarillos, cigars, hookah tobacco, and several types of smokeless tobacco, have been gaining popularity especially among youths. Most of them have been evaluated for safety by the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association and the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), and some of them have been included in the “Substances. Added to Food inventory” of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [1,2]. Among the substances on the list of JECFA and FDA food additives, certain substances are prohibited from being added to food, cosmetics, and toys in Europe because they pose a risk of causing allergic reactions [5,6,7]. Methyl eugenol was removed from the list of “Generally Recognized as Safe” items since the 28th update of the Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association [8], and Regulation (EC) No

Methods

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Conclusion