With respect to the compounds analyzed here, e-cigarettes have a more favorable toxicity profile than tobacco cigarettes.

A liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI+-MS/MS) method for the analysis of the tobacco-specific carcinogens N′-nitrosonornicotine (NNN) and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) and their glucuronides (total NNN and total NNAL) in human urine was developed. The method has excellent accuracy and intra-day and inter-day precision, and limits of quantitation of 0.015 and 0.075 pmol/ml urine, respectively, for total NNN and total NNAL. A unique aspect of this method is internal assessment of possible artifactual formation of NNN by inclusion of the monitor amine [pyridine-D4]nornicotine. We found that artifactual formation of NNN comprised only 2.5% of the measured amounts of total NNN in urine of cigarette smokers, under our conditions using ammonium sulfamate as an inhibitor of nitrosation. The method was applied to urine samples from cigarette smokers and e-cigarette users. Levels of total NNN and total NNAL in the urine of cigarette smokers averaged 0.060 ± 0.035 pmol/mL and 2.41 ± 1.41 pmol/mL urine, (N = 38), respectively, which were both significantly greater than in the urine of 27 e-cigarette users.

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