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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
James N. Hyde, MA, SM1, Doug Brugge, PhD, MS2, James Repace, MS3, William Rand, PhD2, and Aram Kaligian, MD, MPH4. (1) Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Avenue, Boston, MA 02111, (617)636-3456, james.hyde@tufts.edu, (2) Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Tufts University School of Medicine, 136 Harrison Ave., Boston, MA 02111, (3) Repace Associates, Inc., 101 Felicia Lane, Bowie, MD 20720, (4) Boston University Medical Center, 49 Vincent Ave, Belmont, MA 02478
Biomarkers such as cotinine have been used in numerous studies to assess exposure to second hand tobacco smoke. Few attempts have been made to define baseline cotinine levels for putatively non-exposed persons.
We conducted a study in a group of public health professionals, graduate students and their spouses (N=28). Subjects were non-smokers, lived with non-smokers, were non-users of smokeless products and worked in smoke-free environments. Dietary histories and 96 hour collateral tobacco smoke exposure histories were obtained as were urine samples one week apart. Cotinine determinations were performed using a modified ELISA method.
Fifty percent of the subjects were 40 years old or less. Males comprised 39% of the sample while 85% of the participants were white. Forty-six percent (46%) lived in single family homes while the balance of subjects were divided between two/three family houses (14%) and multi-unit dwellings (39%). Work venues varied from academic settings to office settings.
The mean exposure level was 2.74 ng/mL (sd 1.79 ng/mL). Urine cotinine data were log normally distributed, with the median estimated as 2.22 ng/mL (95% confidence interval 0.84 ng/mL to 5.89 ng/mL). Between individual variability could not be explained by either collateral exposure or dietary intake.
Epidemiological studies that compare "exposed" and "non-exposed" groups may actually be comparing "more exposed" with "less exposed" groups underestimating the magnitude of the effects.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Tobacco,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.