Determination of Formaldehyde in Cigarette Smoke

Formaldehdye is considered a hazardous air pollutant with numerous sources that include environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). With the increasing interest regarding ETS and public health the measurement of formaldehyde readily lends itself to a laboratory experiment comparing methods of analysis. This experiment involves the collection, derivatization, extraction, and analysis of formaldehyde from cigarette smoke using two methods. Formaldehyde is extracted from smoke and derivitized with a solution of 2,4-DNPH with subsequent cleanup by solid-phase extraction and analysis of the hydrazone by HPLC with UV detection; additionally a solution of cysteamine yields the corresponding thiazolidine derivative that is liquid/liquid extracted and subsequentlyanalyzed by either GC with NPD or FPD (sulfur mode). Reasonable agreement among the methods was obtained by labdemonstrators with spike recoveries yielding 94.7 + 6.8 (n=5) and 89.2 (n = 4) % for NPD and FPD, respectively while HPLC spiked recoveries were 83.6 + 3.2 (n = 5) %; mean class spike recoveries ranged from 80-100%. Student results (in mg/cigarette) from smoke samples were similar to literature values with 163.2 + 69.2 (n = 7) and 149.4 (n = 7) % for NPD and FPD, respectively; the HPLC result was significantly lower at 45.1 + 23.7(n = 7) with losses presumably due to hydrazone precipitating from the smoke extracted solution. Students particularly benefited from the "real world" nature of the analysis and the experience evaluating disparate methods of determining a common analyte.