by Andrew James, Marketing Director, Ellutia
N-nitrosamines are a diverse group of organic compounds that may increase the risk of certain types of cancer in humans and have been shown to cause tumors in the liver, lung, nasal cavity, esophagus, pancreas, stomach, bladder, colon, kidneys, and central nervous system.1 People are exposed to nitrosamines in everyday life. They exist in low levels in a wide variety of goods including cosmetics, rubber products, tobacco products, processed meats, brewing and malting, agrochemicals, packaging, and pharmaceutical drugs.
The detection and identification of nitrosamine impurities presents unique challenges and can be complex. Some of the more popular methods for detection are gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-MS (LC-MS) technologies. However, these techniques can produce false positives and don’t have the lower limit levels that are required to see all of the impurities in a sample. A quicker and more straightforward method is now becoming the favored choice for nitrosamine testing – thermal energy analysis.
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