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Uranium Concentration and Elemental Characterization of Moassel Smoking Mixtures |
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PP: 1-13 |
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doi:10.18576/jrna/040101
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Author(s) |
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Ashraf E. M. Khater,
S. Al- Horr,
M. Amr,
Kamal Chaouachi,
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Abstract |
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| Smoking is a documented cause of a very serious health hazardous due to inhalation of various toxic agents. However, data about tobacco-derived products such as moassel/tabamel and jurak, used in the growingly popular shisha (narghile, hookah), have been scarce and scattered. In these conditions, the objective of this study, was to investigate the elemental contents of moassel mixture and compare it with that of other tobacco products. Representative samples from 3 different brands were collected. Concentration of U and other 33 elements was measured using the ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer). Concentrations of U in tobacco products were 0.008, 0.089, 0.02 and 0.766 mg kg-1 in moassel, cigarette, tobacco leaves and chewing, respectively. Results show that U and other trace elements are much more abundant in cigarette tobacco than in shisha moassel. A wide range of variations was observed. For instance, the levels of As; Cd and Ni (mg kg-1) were: 1.59, 1.0 and 0.146; 1.45, 0.5 and 0.075; 3.5, 5 and 0.63; for, respectively: cigarette, moassel and jurak. Since shisha smoking is continuously targeted by antismoking groups as a “global epidemic”, a public health priority should be the design of culturally tailored products (for instance resins prepared from local plants to be mixed with the water of the pipes) based on well-established harm reduction techniques. |
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