[Heavy metal content of tobacco products and tobacco smoke]

The authors determined by means of square-wave polarography the copper, lead, cadmium and zinc contents in the tobacco and smoke of cigarettes (16 brands), cigars (5 brands) and pipe tobacco (3 brands) and discuss their possible actions on the human organism. A comparison of the amount of heavy metals taken up by an average smoker (at most 20 cigarettes per day) with the MAC values adopted in the GDR conveys the impression that the loading with copper, lead and zinc is unimportant, whereas, according to the findings of other authors, the loading with cadmium is but seemingly insignificant.