Investigation of heavy metal content of Turkish tobacco leaves, cigarette butt, ash, and smoke.

A procedure for the determination of cadmium, copper, manganese, and zinc in Turkish tobaccos, which were of different origins, years, and grades, and in the butt, ash, and smoke, which were obtained by smoking the cigarettes that were prepared manually from the said tobaccos in a smoking apparatus, was devised as proposed. The collected samples were digested by wet ashing technique by using HNO3-HClO4 and were analyzed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry with satisfactory recoveries (94% to 98%). The regression coefficients were above 0.99, and the detection limits were in the range of 0.03-0.12 mg/L(-1). The performance and accuracy of the method was tested by analyzing "Certified Reference Material GBW 08501-Peach Leaves." The determined values were in agreement with the standard values for the heavy metals analyzed. Thus, it was concluded that the developed method could offer a wide range of application for establishing a relationship between the makeup and composition of tobacco plant, products, ash, smoke, and smoking.