An unnoticed issue: Organochlorine pesticides in tobacco products around the world

In this work we assessed the presence of two well-known pesticides (DDT and lindane) along with their main metabolite or isomer in tobacco products from 11 countries. In 11 of the 14 samples DDTs were the dominant compounds, with maximum concentrations of ppʹ-DDT in Morocco cigarettes (9 ng g−1) and of ppʹ-DDE in Italian cigars (13 ng g−1). Moreover, the α/γ-HCH ratio was mostly lower than 1, indicating the main use of “Lindane” formulation. However, all the detected levels were below the guidance residue values of respective pesticide and metabolite/isomer.