Determination of Benzene and Toluene In Exhaled Cigarette Smoke

This study describes the results regarding the evaluation of retention efficiency by humans of benzene and toluene from cigarette smoke. The evaluated cigarette was a common commercial cigarette with 10.6 mg ‘tar’ [U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ‘tar’ is defined as the weight of total particulate matter minus nicotine and water]. The test was performed on ten subjects. The exhaled smoke was collected using a vacuum assisted technique that avoids strain in exhaling the smoke. The study showed that benzene was retained at levels of 89% to 98%, and toluene was retained at similar levels, between 87% and 99%. The lower limits of retention for both benzene and toluene are unexpectedly low compared to the retention of bi-and tricyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which have retentions from cigarette smoke above 95%. This is probably caused by the fact that monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are present practically only in the vapor phase of cigarette smoke and at considerably higher levels than bi- and tri-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons which are present almost completely in the particulate phase of cigarette smoke.