Mainstream cigarette smoke is a complex aerosol
containing more than 4400 chemicals. The proliferation of
new brands has necessitated development of faster
and more reliable methods capable of analyzing a wide
range of compounds in cigarette smoke. Although the
International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified
whole cigarette smoke as a human carcinogen, many of
the individual chemicals are themselves highly biologically
active as carcinogens, teratogens, or have implications
for cardiovascular disease. Among these chemicals are
many volatile organic compounds (VOCs), e.g., benzene,
ethylbenzene, and styrene. To analyze VOCs in mainstream
cigarette smoke, we developed a novel headspace
collection technique using polyvinylfluoride bags for sample
collection followed by cannula transfer to evacuated
standard 20-mL auto sampler vials. Coupling collection of
the vapor-phase cigarette smoke with automated analysis
by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography/
mass spectrometry enabled us to routinely quantify selected
VOCs in mainstream cigarette smoke. This technique has
similar reproducibility to previous cold trap and impinger
collection methods with significantly higher sample
throughput and virtually no solvent waste. In this report
we demonstrate the method’s analytical capabilities
by quantitatively analyzing 13 selected VOCs in mainstream
cigarette smoke from top-selling domestic brands.