Cadmium Determination In Cigarettes Available In Nigeria

African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 4 (10), pp. 1128-1132, October 2005
Available online at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB
ISSN 1684–5315 © 2005 Academic Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Cadmium determination in cigarettes available in
Nigeria
NNOROM I. C.1*, OSIBANJO O.2, OJI-NNOROM C. G.3
1

Department of Industrial Chemistry, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria.
2Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
3
Raw Material, Research and Development Council, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, P. M. B. 7264,
Umuahia, Nigeria.
Accepted 16 September, 2005

Cadmium (Cd) contents were determined in 30 brands of tobacco cigarette commonly available in
Nigeria by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The concentration of Cd in the cigarettesranged from
0.7 to 2.3 g/g dry weight with mean 1.48 ± 0.46 g/g. Higher Cd concentrations were found in imported
brands (1.52 ± 0.46 g/g) compared to the Nigerian brands (1.10 ± 0.35 g/g). Relatively lower Cd values
were observed in cigarettes from developing countries (~ 1.3 g/g) compared to brands from developed
countries (>1.3 g/g). The average Cd content of cigarettes available in Nigeriais 1.28 g per cigarette
and a person who smokes 20 cigarettes per day is estimated to increase his daily Cd retention by
approximately 1 g/day (0.53 – 1.65 g/day). The results indicate that smoking and exposure to cigarette
smoke is a confounder to be taken into account when carrying out epidemiological studies on human
exposure to cadmium.
Key words: Cigarettes, tobacco, cadmium, Nigeria,smoke.
INTRODUCTION
Cigarette is one of the means by which nicotine in
tobacco is made available for human consumption.
Nicotine is recognized to be the major inducer of tobacco
dependency (Hoffmann and Hoffmann, 1997). Approximately 5 trillion cigarettes are produced each year or
1,000 cigarettes for each man, woman and child on
earth (HRO/World Bank, 1993). Usually, cigarette is
made upof tobacco, paper and additives. As much as
600 – 1400 additives are used in cigarette manufacture,
with many of these additives containing trace elements
that include Cd (Ebisike et al., 2004). A study of more
than 300 ingredients added to cigarette reported an
increase in the yield of total particulate matter (TPM) in
the range of 13 - 28% relative to the cigarettes without
theseingredients (Rustemeier et al., 2004). This was
attributed to the higher transfer rates of the added
ingredients to smoke.
Since 1950, the make up of cigarettes and the
*Corresponding author. E-mail: chidiabsu@yahoo.co.uk, Tel:
+234-803-7928452.

composition of cigarette smoke have gradually changed.
The “tar” and nicotine levels have decreased from 38 mg
tar and 2.7 mg nicotine to as low as 12 mgtar and 1.0
mg nicotine. This was achieved primarily with the
introduction of filter tips, (with and without perforation),
selection of tobacco types and varieties, utilization of
highly porous cigarette paper and incorporation into the
tobacco blend of reconstituted tobacco and “expanded
tobacco”, (Hoffmann and Hoffmann, 1997). The “tar” and
nicotine content of cigarettes available inNigeria are in
the range of 12 – 18 mg and 0.7 – 1.4 mg, respectively.
Cigarette smoke contains particles and gases
generated by the combustion of its various components
at high temperature. More than 4000 compounds have
been identified in environmental tobacco smoke
(Kleeman et al., 1999). The cigarette smoke can be
inhaled directly by the smoker and non-smokers in
cigarette contaminatedenvironment through passive
smoking. Cadmium is a known carcinogen and is one of
the components of tobacco. It has been proved
quantitatively that exposure to cigarette smoke is
harmful to both active and passive smokers. Shaham et
al. (1996) observed that exposure to cigarette smoke via

Nnorom et al.

active and passive smoking increases blood Cd by an
average of 0.01 g% over the...