Solid matter and soluble compounds collected from cigarette smoke and heated tobacco product aerosol using a laboratory designed puffing setup

A laboratory setup recently designed has been used to perform puffing experiments in conditions similar to those of Health Canada Intense regime with the purpose of collecting and studying any particulate and/or soluble matter generated as a result of cigarette smoking or Heets use in an IQOS device. Smoke or aerosol can leave deposited matter in several parts of the setup, roughly resembling the interaction with the human body. Samples have been collected from different parts of the setup. For cigarettes, the extracted solutions were yellowish, whereas they remained colourless for Heets. This indicates that the content of both the deposited particulate matter and the amount of soluble compounds were much higher in cigarettes smoke than in Heets aerosol. Not only quantitative differences have been found. Thus, the solid matter collected from cigarettes smoke contains some insoluble fractions mainly composed by C and O, but also by traces of S, K, Ca, Fe, As, Na, Al, Si, and Ba, while the analogous samples from Heets are mainly composed of C and O and are soluble in isopropanol. In addition, in Heets aerosol a relatively low fraction of the detected compounds corresponds to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), compared to the percentage of PAHs present in the cigarette smoke. When cigarettes were smoked under a continuous smoking regime (continuous air flow) solid matter was found to be deposited on a part of the setup. This collected solid matter was composed mainly of C and O (being mostly insoluble in water and partially soluble in isopropanol) and contained traces of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Cu, and Pb).

Automated summary

A laboratory setup was used to collect and study particulate and soluble matter generated from cigarette smoke or Heets aerosol. The results showed that cigarettes produced higher levels of particulate matter and soluble compounds compared to Heets. The solid matter from cigarette smoke contained insoluble fractions and traces of heavy metals, while the samples from Heets were mainly composed of carbon and oxygen and soluble in isopropanol.