In March 2016, the CORESTA Smokeless Tobacco Sub-Group (STS) (now named Tobacco and Tobacco Products Analytes Sub-Group, TTPA) published CORESTA Recommended Method No. 82 Determination of Benzo[a]pyrene in Tobacco Products by GC-MS (CRM N° 82). In May 2016, four new CORESTA Reference Products (CRPs) were manufactured. In a characterisation study of the new CRPs, it was noted that the reproducibility (R) results showed greater variability than expected for CRP2.1 and CRP3.1 - this was attributed to the CRPs having higher levels of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) than analysed previously. This collaborative study was organised to determine if the modification to the CRM would improve the reproducibility (R) values for samples with high levels of B[a]P.

The results of the study demonstrated that the method modifications did improve the reproducibility (R) results for CRP2.1 and CRP3.1, and CRM 82 was subsequently revised and updated.
 

CORESTA Smokeless Tobacco Reference Products