A tobacco-related carcinogen: assessing the impact of smoking behaviours of cohabitants on benzene exposure in children

Abstract

Although smoke-free legislation has transformed the smoking behaviours of some, domestic environments remain an important source of SHS exposure for children. This fact holds true even in the case of parents and other cohabitants who believe they are fully protecting children by smoking only outdoors or at home only when the children are not present. These findings should be included in Italian community-level health promotion interventions for discouraging tobacco use.

Urinary cotinine concentrations in preschool children showed positive associations with smoking fathers

“…Maternal smoking is known to be an important factor in children's exposure to ETS because mothers are more likely to be the primary caregivers. These results were consistent with the majority of other reports (15)(16)(17). The geometric mean value of the urinary cotinine concentrations in children was 2.24-5.61 ng/mL, and the urinary cotinine concentrations were associated with the number of cigarettes smoked by smokers in front of the children at home.…”

The association between environmental tobacco smoke exposure and childhood respiratory disease: a review

“…Significant associations between fossil fuel use and increased benzene (OR 3.4 (95% CI 2.1–5.4)), carbon monoxide (OR 2.9 (95% CI 1.7–5.0)), and NO 2 (OR 18.6 (95% CI 3.9–88.9)) levels were also found [100]. In an Italian study that examined the association between household cohabitants’ smoking behaviors and urinary cotinine and benzene (a tobacco-related carcinogen) levels in children contacts found the levels of urinary benzene paralleled that of urine cotinine and were related to smoking behaviors such as smoking indoors versus outside the home [101]. Adverse respiratory outcomes are associated with a number of combustion by-products.…”

Urinary levels of trace elements among primary school-aged children from Italy: The contribution of smoking habits of family members

“…Very dilute or concentrated urine samples (creatinine concentration b 0.3 g/L or N3.0 g/L, respectively) were excluded (n = 4), according to the recommendations of WHO (1996) and of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (2004). The unadjusted data were expressed as μg/L for univariate analysis, and u-creatinine concentration was used as independent variable in the multiple regressions as suggested by Barr et al (2005) and Protano et al (2012cProtano et al ( , 2014.…”