Comparative Assessment of Total Nicotine Content of the Cigarette Brands Available in Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

Tobacco use is high around the globe and Pakistan is no exception. Tobacco products have been implicated in inducing injurious effects to its users. It not only kills but also causes many chronic diseases. Keeping in view the toxic effects associated with tobacco use, a study was undertaken to determine the nicotine and moisture content in randomly selected cigarette brands available in Peshawar, Pakistan. Twenty-three different cigarette brands; ten Pakistani and thirteen foreign were randomly selected from the 48 brands purchased from shops and subjected to analyses using AOAC (Association of Official Analytical Chemists) method at an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory. It was found that only two out of twenty three brands displayed nicotine content on their packs. Overall the total nicotine content per cigarette in the samplesanalyzed varied from 5.44 to 17.8mg; whereas the percent nicotine content varied from1.33 to 1.98.However the percent moisture content varied from 7.2 to 13.4. Resultsshowed that the mean nicotine content for national brands is 12.8mg and for internationalbrands it is 10.57mg. Therefore the nicotine content was higher by 21.57% in the nationalas compared to international brands. It is proposed that the total nicotine content andtobacco quantity per cigarette should be reduced and displayed on all the packs. Thevalues displayed should be the total nicotine content per cigarette rather than percentnicotine in the cigarette smoke.