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Pesticides residues in tobacco smoke: risk assessment study

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Abstract

Pesticides are not only used on food but also on non-food crops, such as tobacco, to control a range of unwanted animal, plant, and microbial, fungal pests. The residue levels in tobacco leaves are expected to decline up to harvest, during drying, and when the leaves are further processed. Additional pesticides may also be applied to the finished product and residue levels may remain present even when the tobacco is burned. Human exposure to pesticide residues on tobacco occurs when residues remaining in cigarette smoke are inhaled. Based on this assumption, the objectives of this research were (i) to determine the level of pesticides residues in harvested tobacco leaves and (ii) to assess the risk of human exposure to these residues in tobacco smoke. Pesticide residues were detected in all analysed tobacco samples. These detected residues represent ten different active ingredients (AI), three of these AIs (thiodicarb, alachlor, and endosulfan) are no longer allowed in Europe. A 54.7% of these residues were quantifiable. Furthermore, it was found that with the use of solid-phase extraction sorbent (SPE) as adsorbent and n-hexane as solvent, higher recoveries of the pesticide residues in the tobacco smoke from the amount spiked can be obtained. It was also found that cigarette filters help to reduce the intake of residues of pesticides that may be present in cigarettes. Finally, the study concluded that both active smoking and passive smoking populations are exposed to pesticide residues in the tobacco smoke.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Study Centre of Energy and Industrial Process, Sancti Spíritus University, Avenida de los Mártires #360, Sancti Spíritus, Cuba

    Edelbis López Dávila & Osvaldo Romero Romero

  2. Department of Crop and Plants, Laboratory of Crop Protection Chemistry, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, Ghent, Belgium

    Edelbis López Dávila, Michael Houbraken, Jasmine De Rop, Abukari Wumbei & Pieter Spanoghe

  3. Department of Green Chemistry and Technology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653, Ghent, Belgium

    Gijs Du Laing

  4. School of Technology , SRH - Hochschule Berlin Ernts Reuter Platz 10, Berlin, Germany

    Osvaldo Romero Romero

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  1. Edelbis López Dávila
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López Dávila, E., Houbraken, M., De Rop, J. et al. Pesticides residues in tobacco smoke: risk assessment study. Environ Monit Assess 192, 615 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-020-08578-7

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