Arsenic Levels and Speciation in Tobacco Products

Extensive data on metal levels in tobacco and cigarette emissions has been accumulated in the past few decades. However, metal speciation data in tobacco products may be more important for toxicological assessment of multivalent elements such as arsenic (As) and chromium (Cr). Here the data on arsenic levels in tobacco blends, cigarette mainstream smoke and commercial smokeless tobacco products were reviewed. The recent approaches to determine the speciation of trace metals in tobacco products were also discussed. Arsenic was used as an example to illustrate that speciation data are needed to fully understand its fate during leaf growing, smoke formation, smoke transfer.