Smoking and Breath Volatiles

By 1995, Lindinger s group had developed a prototype PTR-MS instrument which had far greater sensitivity than their SIFDT apparatus (see previous Section). One of the first applications of this new instrument was to investigate the breath of smokers and non-smokers [21, 24, 76]. The research team noted that in comparison to non-smokers, acetonitrile was elevated in the samples of breath taken from smokers and they therefore suggested that this compound can be used as a breath marker for smokers [21]. In addition to finding acetonitrile 

Subsequent work by Lirk et al. aimed to more accurately quantify recent smoking behaviour by measuring exhaled concentration levels of acetonitrile in 268 volunteers (48 smokers and 220 non-smokers) attending a local health fair [31]. Again smokers were shown to have elevated levels of acetonitrile in their breath and it was therefore confirmed that analysis of acetonitrile on breath can be used as a procedure to determine if someone had recently been smoking. 

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