National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

“ At the highest ETS concentration and a sampling rate of 1 L/min, over 3000 L of air would need to be sampled to reach the sampling tube capacity. Sampling rates and times typically employed in field studies would almost never exceed the capacity of the XAD-4 sampling tube. When sampling for nicotine in ETS, only the XAD-4sampling tube is employed. However, when sampling for nicotine where particulate matter is present, such as in the greenhouse study, it may be necessary to use a glass fiber filter (GFF) in series with the XAD-4 sorbent tube. ”

“ SAMPLE PREPARATION: 5. Place front (include glass wool plug) and back sorbent sections of the sampler in separate vials. Discard middle and back glass wool plugs. 6. Add 1 mL of desorbing solution (modified ethyl acetate) to each vial. 7. Add aliquots (10 to 50 μL) of the quinoline secondary stock internal standard solution to both the calibration standards and sample vials and attach PTFE-lined crimp caps. NOTE: Determine the approximate level of nicotine that will be in the samples and add a similar amount of quinoline. Environmental tobacco smoke usually has low nicotine levels. ”

“ Under the GC parameters stated in the method, nicotine can be identified based upon retention time. Nicotine is quantified using quinoline as an internal standard [1] . At high sample concentration, XAD-4 sorbent tube capacity (300 μg) may be exceeded and breakthrough may occur [1] . ”