A system was needed to monitor how the gas phase products of cigarettes change over time as a cigarette is burned.

Commercially available cigarette smoking apparatuses only measure analytes that will condense on filter paper.

Wasson-ECE designed a heated sampling system able to contain individual cigarette draws in the gas phase and hold them for a delayed analysis. Specially passivated coatings and increased heat preserved sample integrity in the interim. The system also more accurately emulated the act of smoking a cigarette than filter paper style analyzers. An expansion chamber was included to simulate a lung in order to better represent real-world samples. Once one of the samples was completely analyzed, the smoke in the following hold chamber was then injected into the GCMS for analysis. Many specifically targeted carcinogens, along with many other analytes of interest, and research targets were analyzed. The chemical burn profile of a cigarette is now much better understood. This basic design has been implemented elsewhere and is now analyzing electronic cigarettes and similar devices.