Summary of Regulatory Methods and Procedures for Determination of Harmful and Potentially Harmful Components in Tobacco Smoke

Summary Tobacco smoke consists of over 5000 chemical components, most of them are carcinogenic, respiratory toxicants, cardiovascular toxicants, addictive, etc. In 2006 the Working Group on Tobacco Control identified substances in tobacco smoke, which are harmful and potentially harmful for human health (Priority List) and encouraged the development of methods for the analysis of these components. This review focuses on the different methods of evaluation of harmful and potentially harmful components in tobacco smoke used by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and furthermore on the official methods proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cooperation Center for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco (CORESTA) for analysing these constituents. The various methods for the determination of the substances in tobacco smoke included in the Priority List are compared. In addition, the different evaluation of components from the Priority List is presented. The authors hope that this review will acquaint readers with the harmful components in tobacco smoke. Also, that it will help accredited or scientific laboratories to compare the different methods and to choose appropriate methods depending on their laboratory equipment and laboratory chemicals available.