Simultaneous determination of fifteen heterocyclic aromatic amines in the urine of smokers and nonsmokers using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

•Fifteen HAAs were analyzed in urine of smokers and nonsmokers using UHPLC–MS/MS.•The developed method showed high sensitivity, good reproducibility and recoveries.•Trace HAAs were analyzed and compared between smokers’ and nonsmokers’ urine samples.•Results showed the exposures of AαC and DMIP may be connected with cigarette smoking.

A sensitive UHPLC–MS/MS method to simultaneously determine fifteen heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAAs) was developed and applied analyze of human urine. The detection limit of the fifteen HAAs was 0.80–6.06 pg/mL and the quantitation limit was 2.65–20.2 pg/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precisions of all HAAs were ≤10%. Based on the high sensitivity and good precision, the method was successively applied to analyze the urine of smokers and nonsmokers. Ten HAAs were detected, analyzed and compared between the two groups, and the analytical results showed that cigarette smoke could increase the exposures to 2-amino-9H-pyrido[2,3-b]indole (AαC) and 2-amino-1,6-dimethylimidazo[4,5-b]-pyridine (DMIP). This work is the first report that ten HAAs were simultaneously detected, and is the first comprehensive study of HAA exposure induced by cigarette smoking.