Two novel porous nitrosamine traps have been synthesized in order to eliminate carcinogens from the environment. A functional mesoporous material, CuO/SBA-15, has been synthesized by using an in-situ coating method, with the addition of a guest salt to the reaction system to modify the porous materials before the particles of SBA-15 were incubated; the synthesis and modification processes were performed in a single step. The resulting mesoporous composites selectively adsorb N-nitrosopyrrolidine (NPYR), a typical volatile nitrosamine, and are potential cigarette additives that can be used for the removal of nitrosamines from cigarette smoke, thereby protecting public health and the environment. In another reaction, silica gel is modified by being coated with magnesia and then corroded by NaOH solution. The magnesia is dispersed onto the silica by impregnating it with a magnesium acetate solution, followed by calcination. After corrosion of the calcined sample with caustic soda, only the silica particles that are completely covered by magnesia remain. This material exhibits a similar ability to SBA-15 and zeolite NaY in its selective adsorption of NPYR.