Measurement of thiocyanate in human blood as a function of smoke

Defects of health are attributed to the smoking of cigarettes. In tobacco smoke, so far several hundred substances have been determined analytically and chemically. Hydrocyanic acid (as a respiratory poison) is a very weak acid, which is only with 0.16% contained in the gas stage of cigarettes. In spite of this small amount it can be detected in the plasma of blood in the form of thiocyanate. In this paper human blood was examined on the parameter thiocyanate in dependency of smoking cigarettes. The determination of thiocyanate was done with the blood plasma of 56 persons. The ascertainment of thiocyanate concentration was carried out photometrically in the human blood. The statistical analysis shows that the concentration of thiocyanate in blood increases with increasing number of cigarettes consumed daily. A positive correlation was found between the levels of thiocyanate concentrations.