Chest
Clinical Investigations: SmokingPassive Smoking in Children: Racial Differences in Systemic Exposure to Cotinine by Hair and Urine Analysis
Section snippets
Subjects
Pediatric patients between the ages of 2 and 18 years attending a consulting pediatric office in Toronto were recruited between July 25 and September 24, 1993. A written consent was obtained from parents of all children younger than 16 years of age and from children older than this age. Assent was signed by all children between 7 and 16 years of age. The study protocol was approved by the Research Ethics Committees of the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children and York Finch General Hospital.
Data Collection
RESULTS
A total of 172 parent-child pairs consented to participate. An additional four parents and one adolescent refused to participate. Four of the consenting children were excluded because they reported in the questionnaire to have smoked actively. Three additional cases were excluded because the questionnaire was not returned and one because the parent was unable to estimate the amount of exposure to smoke. There were 112 (70%) whites, 24 (15%) blacks (West Indians), and 24 (15%) East Indians. A
DISCUSSION
Our study reveals significant correlations between the daily number of cigarettes reported to have been smoked by the parents and the child's concentration of cotinine in either urine or hair. Yet, each of those three measures reflects different characteristics of passive smoking: the number of cigarettes reflects air concentrations of environmental tobacco smoke. Our analysis reveals that the cumulative number of family members who smoke correlates with urine cotinine accumulation, with the
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Cited by (53)
Racial/ethnic and gender differences in smoking in early middle adulthood
2022, SSM - Population HealthCitation Excerpt :Parental smoking is associated with current smoking in young adults and smoking initiation among adolescents (Gilman et al., 2009; Kandel et al., 2015). Although the effect of parental smoking on adolescent and young adult smoking is found across groups, exposure to parental smoking differs across race/ethnicity and gender (Knight et al., 1996; Muilenburg et al., 2006). The relationship between smoking and SES has been well established, with lower SES in childhood or adulthood related to a higher chance of smoking (e.g., Hiscock et al., 2012).
Green Tobacco Sickness Among Tobacco Harvesters in a Korean Village
2018, Safety and Health at WorkCitation Excerpt :Generally, the half-life of nicotine is 2–2.5 hours, and 4–5 hours when absorbed through the skin [17]. By contrast, cotinine has a half-life of 18–24 hours [24,25]. The diagnosis of GTS is preferred to be made by measuring cotinine, as the half-life is much longer [26].
Medico-social aspects of patients with bronchial asthma
2015, KontaktCitation Excerpt :Cotinine (nicotine metabolite) can be detected in urine, saliva, blood and hair [75]. Children have lower clirens of nicotine which implies higher systematic exposure [76,77]. Smoking in the United States is the number one cause of death, which can be influenced through prevention [78].
Response [6]
2007, ChestThe role of air nicotine in explaining racial differences in cotinine among tobacco-exposed children
2007, ChestCitation Excerpt :While prior studies have explored racial differences in cotinine using parent-reported levels of ETS exposure, this is the first study to our knowledge that actively measured levels of tobacco smoke in the home. Using air nicotine as an objective measure of exposure, we confirmed and extended the findings of previous studies10,12,16,28that showed racial differences in serum cotinine among children exposed to ETS. In this cohort of ETS-exposed children with asthma, the African-American participants had significantly higher levels of cotinine in serum and hair compared with white children.
Supported by a Start Up Grant, the Research Institute, the Hospital for Sick Children, and by the Medical Research Council of Canada.
Dr Koren is a Career Scientist of the Ontario Ministry of Health.