Levels of selected heavy metals in some brands of Cigarettes marketed in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Four commonly smoked brands cigarette from Abuja campus in the University of Port Harcourt were randomly sampled and analyzed for heavy metals using Atomic Adsorption Spectrometry (AAS). The brands include Benson and Hedges, Rothmans, Dorchester, and St. Moritz. The results of the analysis indicated that the concentration of Zn was found to be in range of 27.48-64.29mgkg^-1, Cu had 11.27- 13.28mgkg^-1, and Cd was 0.53-0.59mgkg^-1. Pb was found in the range of 5.22-7.99mgkg^-1, Mn concentrations were in the range of 87.42-106.22mgkg^-1, and the values for Fe were in the range of 167.49-230.47mgkg^-1 while Cr and Ni levels were in the range of 16.82- 25.99mgkg^-1 and 2.65-4.67mgkg^-1 respectively. Iron concentrations were highest in all the brands compared to the other metals; while the cadmium concentration was lowest in all the four brands cigarette analyzed. Generally the levels of content of the metals in all the brands except Zinc were high compared with the WHO threshold values. In addition to emphasizing the danger of cigarette smoking, the results highlighted the heavy metals toxicity potential of each brand of cigarette.