Quantitative measurement of harmful and potentially harmful constituents, pH, and moisture content in 16 commercial smokeless tobacco products

Smokeless tobacco products expose adult and youth tobacco users to various addictive and carcinogenic con-stituents that can cause long-term nicotine dependence and oral cancers. In this study, nicotine, benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), N'-nitrosonornicotine (NNN), 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), acetaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, formaldehyde, moisture, and pH levels in 16 smokeless tobacco products were measured on a wet-weight basis (wwb). In addition, change in analytical variability with increasing replicate measurements was assessed. Total nicotine in the products varied from 6.2 to 35.5 mg/g. The percentage of total nicotine in the unprotonated form ranged from 0.1 to 62%; whereas, product moisture varied from 7.4 to 57%. The quantities of harmful and potentially harmful constituents (HPHCs) range from 0.46 to 179.9 ng/g for B [a]P, 270-12206 and 81-20716 ng/g for NNN and NNK, respectively, and 0.33-6.85 and 0.13-5.67 mu g/g for acetaldehyde and formaldehyde, respectively. This study shows wide variation in smokeless tobacco product HPHC quantities. The results also show that analytical variability stabilizes after seven replicate measurements.

Automated summary

Smokeless tobacco products contain addictive and carcinogenic substances that can cause nicotine dependence and oral cancers. This study measured the levels of various substances in 16 smokeless tobacco products and found significant variations. Additionally, the study observed that the analytical variability stabilized after seven replicate measurements.