EDXRF analysis of some samples of cigarette paper

The effects of tobacco on human health have been widely investigated and documented However, there are not too many specific reports on the potential risk associated to the presence of metals in the paper employed for cigarettes fabrication Even more, there is a lack of national and international norms in this respect. Otherwise, in the literature INAA appears as the unique method for wrapping paper analysis. Therefore, without a nuclear reactor available at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), EDXRF was selected with the aim to explore the possibility to apply this method, instead of INAA, to the analysis of wrapping paper assuming this task, at the beginning, as a supplement to a previous research which was recently presented (2005).(1) The analytical work was developed on the wrapping paper of eight of the most known marks of cigarettes in Mexico, in two non-destructive stages: a first survey, by the classical technique of energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF), used a 1.11 GBq radiation source of Pu-238 and a SiLi detector. In the absence of standard reference materials for cigarette's paper, the SRM-1832 and 1833 were required for calibration, a fiberglass air filter was used as a secondary standard. The second stage was performed in a spectrometer TX-2000, anode of Mo, quantification software EDXRF32 (fundamental parameters). This paper presents a comparison of the obtained values with those found in the literature. The results show that the EDXRF method, in the Mo tube version, has the adequate precision and detection limits for the analysis of wrapping paper.