This study determined the concentration of chemicals in electronic cigarettes via liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. It is not known what chemicals are in electronic cigarettes and what concentrations they are in. The study used a gas chromatography (GC), which tells what chemicals are in a solution. It identifies the presence of a certain chemical and measures the amount of it. Specifically, the study was looking for a special type of chemicals called tobacco specific nitrosamines, which are highly carcinogenic, cancer causing. The results of the experiment was that there was a lot of tobacco specific nitrosamines. In fact, it was 10 times more than reported by studies done by the e-cigarette companies.
The question of this lab was to figure out if tobacco specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), which are heavily carcinogenic, and are found in traditional cigarettes. Other studies have tried to figure this out, but their sample sizes were too small. Gas chromatography is a widely used method for determining the presence of TSNAs. It was hypothesized that there would be a presence of TSNAs in electronic cigarette liquid.
Previous information needed in order to generate a hypothesis would be a knowledge of electronic cigarettes. People would also need to have a basic understanding of the gas chromatography method and how electronic cigarettes work.
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