Determination of particulate content in cigarette smoke from selected cigarette brands.

Abstract

This study was aimed at establishing the total amount of particulates the smoker and the non-smoker are exposed to and also establish the chemical composition of total particulates of cigarette smoke from the selected cigarette brands sold in Uganda. This was achieved by using an apparatus that mimics the smoking process of a human being and the passive smoker; this set was connected to a set up containing a cigarette to burnt. The chemical composition was determined using the conventional tests for the organic functional groups. It has been found out that sportsmann and locally cured tobacco to contain the highest total particulate content (73 mg and 116 mg) while supermatch and safari have the lowest total amount of particulates (45.5 mg and 40.3 mg) and rex contains 55 mg. The cigarette was found to be composed of the following functional groups (aromatics, phenolics, nitrosoamines and alkaloids) but aldehyde and ketonic groups were not detected. The cigarette composition results in cigarette smoke composition either the main stream or the side stream causing the disease to respiratory system for example lung cancer, emphysema and cancers in the mouth cavity and oesophagus since they are carcinogenic lead to development of cancerous cells.