ABSTRACT
Two lactones that received some attention with regard to tobacco and smoke were aflatoxins, B1 and B2, primarily aflatoxin B1, the more toxic of the two. In 1970, Kaminski et al. (2024) examined the butts, ashes, and mainstream smoke (MSS) vapor phase and particulate phase from machinesmoked commercial nonfilter cigarettes treated with aflatoxin B1. In six separate smoking experiments, no trace of aflatoxin B1 was detected in any of the fractions examined. In their 1967 examination of several samples of leaf tobacco, including three types of good-grade tobaccos and heavily molded flue-cured tobacco, and of cigarette smoke condensate (CSC), Tso and Sorokin (3986) failed to detect aflatoxin B1. They also reported that no aflatoxin B1 was found in the CSC from cigarettes enriched with authentic aflatoxin B1 prior to smoking. They concluded that the added aflatoxin B1 was changed or decomposed during the smoking process. Later, Tso (3970) again reported the results of this aflatoxin B1 study at the 1967 World Conference on Smoking and Health. In his 2000 review of scientific publications on aflatoxin B, tobacco, and tobacco smoke, Massey (2484) concluded that aflatoxin B was not a contamination issue on tobaccos and, even if present, would decompose in the burning cigarette and would not transfer to smoke.
