Biomarkers of Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure

Abstract

Biomarkers are desirable for quantitating human exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and for predicting potential health risks for exposed individuals. A number of biomarkers of ETS have been proposed. At present cotinine, measured in blood, saliva, or urine, appears to be the most specific and the most sensitive biomarker. In nonsmokers with significant exposure to ETS, cotinine levels in the body are derived primarily from tobacco smoke, can be measured with extremely high sensitivity, and reflect exposure to a variety of types of cigarettes independent of machine-determined yield. Under conditions of sustained exposure to ETS (i.e., over hours or days), cotinine levels reflect exposure to other components of ETS. Supporting the validity of cotinine as a biomarker, cotinine levels have been positively correlated to the risks of some ETSrelated health complications in children who are not cigarette smokers. -Environ Health Perspect 1 07(Suppl 2): 349-355 (1999). http.//ehpnetl.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1999/Suppl-2/ 349-355benowitz/abstract.html

Evaluation of Chromosome Aberrations in Subjects Exposed to Environmental Tobacco Smoke in Tamilnadu, India

“…A direct physical measurement of exposure to tobacco smoke would reduce potential problems associated with self-report, such as inaccurate recall, underreporting, and misinterpretation of questions. In the present study, serum cotinine have been selected because other markers (e.g., carbon monoxide, cyanide, nicotine-derived nitrosoamines) are non-specific, insensitive, technically demanding or have high baseline values even in non-smokers (Benowitz et al 1999). Nonsmokers exposed to typical levels of ETS have cotinine levels of less than 1 ng/mL, with heavy exposure to ETS producing levels in the1-15 ng/mL range (NCEH 2003), in the present study too, both the passive and controls subjects were selected in the above estimated range.…”

“…Measuring cotinine is preferred over measuring nicotine because cotinine persists longer in the body. The average half life of cotinine in different body fluids in adults is approximately 20 h, compared with a half-life of 2 h for nicotine, making it a good indicator of the integrated exposure over the previous 2-3 days (Benowitz 1999;Rebagliato 2002).…”

Capillary thermal desorption unit for near real-time analysis of VOCs at sub-trace levels. Application to the analysis of environmental air contamination and breath samples

“…The measurement of nicotine metabolites in biological fluids (mainly blood and urine) has attracted more attention from the scientific community. The determination of cotinine, the major proximate metabolite of nicotine, has been widely used by scientist to evaluate ETS exposure given that this substance reflects exposure to nicotine, which is almost specific to tobacco [6]. Nicotine-derived nitrosoamines such as 4-(methylnitrosoamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) have also been proposed [7].…”

Secondhand smoke exposure and cardiovascular disease

“…Likewise, a 20-year prospective analysis of the British Regional Heart Study [6•] found that SHS exposure as measured by serum cotinine concentrations [29] at baseline was associated with a greater excess risk of CHD (OR, 1.45-1.57) than that estimated by previous investigators, who relied only upon partner smoking history for assessment of SHS exposure. This study was conducted in the United Kingdom, where a legislation requiring smoke-free public settings (eg, restaurants, pubs) has been implemented only recently (July 2007).…”