Regulation of electronic cigarettes, which represent potential harm to public health.

最近推出市场的电子烟是一种电池供电的设备，通过将化学溶液加热到蒸汽中来提供烟草般的烟雾。然而，关于电子烟的安全性，现有的信息很少，因为由于化学成分的性质，如丙烯醛和其他羰基，对产生的烟雾进行分析非常困难。最近，我们建立了一种用双柱系统测定丙烯醛和其他羰基的有效方法，该双柱系统由第一对苯二酚(HQ)柱和第二根2，4-二硝基苯肼(DNPH)柱组成，第一柱用于丙烯醛聚合的抑制，第二柱用于羰基的衍生化。所有衍生于空气中的羰基肼类化合物都被完全分离出来，并用高效液相色谱法进行了测定。在这项研究中，我们使用HQ-DNPH技术分析了电子烟产生的羰基化合物。结果表明，电子烟烟雾中含有甲醛、乙醛、丙烯醛、乙二醛和甲基乙二醛。甲醛的最高浓度为260毫克/立方米3。根据品牌的不同，弹壳通常含有产生蒸汽(如乙二醇、丙二醇或甘油)和味道(如烟草、薄荷、水果和巧克力)的保湿剂。因此，制作了一种简单的电子烟，由缠绕的尼克罗姆丝和乙二醇组分组成，尼克罗姆丝上施加1.5~7.5V的电压。研究发现，当电压超过3V时，会产生含有羰基化合物的雾状物质。结果表明，乙二醇氧化成甲醛和乙二醛，丙二醇氧化成甲醛、乙醛和乙二醛，甘油氧化成甲醛、丙烯醛、乙二醛和甲二醛。

The electronic cigarette, introducedR recently to the marketplace, is a battery-powered device that provides tobacco-like smoke by heating a chemical solution into a vapor. There is, however, little information available regarding the safety of the electronic cigarette, because analysis of the smoke produced is very difficult due to the nature of the chemical components, e.g. acrolein and other carbonyls. Recently, we have developed an effective method for the determination of acrolein and other carbonyls using a dual-cartridge system, which consists of the first hydroquinone (HQ) cartridge for the inhibition of acrolein polymerization and the second 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) cartridge for the derivatization of carbonyls. All of the hydrazones derived from airborne carbonyls were completely separated and measured using HPLC. In this study, we analyzed carbonyl compounds generated by the electronic cigarette using the HQ-DNPH technique. Results showed that formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein, glyoxal and methyl glyoxal were contained in the electronic cigarette smoke. The maximum concentration of formaldehyde was 260 mg/m^3. Depending on the brand, cartridges usually contain humectants to produce the vapor (e.g. ethylene glycol, propylene glycol or glycerol) and flavors (e.g. tobacco, mint, fruit and chocolate). Therefore, a simple electronic cigarette was made, comprising a coiled Nichrom wire and glycols ; a voltage of 1.5～7.5 V was applied to the Nichrom wire. It was found that when the voltage exceeded 3 V, a mist containing carbonyl compounds was generated. From the results, it was elucidated that ethylene glycol was oxidized to formaldehyde and glyoxal ; propylene glycol was oxidized to formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and methylglyoxal ; and glycerol was oxidized to formaldehyde, acrolein, glyoxal and methylglyoxal.