Tobacco-specific nitrosamines in some Nigerian cigarettes

Ten popular brands of cigarettes on the Nigerian market were analyzed for tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) in tobacco and in mainstream smoke, as well as nitrate in tobacco. TSNA was analyzed using a gas chromatography/thermal energy analyzer (GC-TEA), while nitrate was determined spectrophotometrically as nitrite following on-line reduction with copper, diozatization with sulfanilamide and coupling with N-(1-naphthyl) ethylene diamine to form an azo dye. In mainstream smoke, the concentration of NNN, NAB/NAT and NNK were respectively, between 8 and 90 ng, 10 and 65 ng, and between 15 and 72 ng/cigarette. Preformed NNN ranged between 64 and 565 ng/cigarette, while preformed NAB/NAT and NNK ranged respectively from 109 to 476 ng/cigarette, and from 55 to 317 ng/cigarette. Nitrate levels ranged between 1.5 and 6.1 mg/g tobacco. In general, the results indicate that the TSNA content of Nigerian cigarettes are within the range found for European and American cigarettes.