Open AccessExposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and Urinary 1‐Hydroxypyrene Levels in Preschool Children
Author(s) -
Tsai HsiuTing,
Wu MingTsang,
Hauser Russ,
Rodrigues Ema,
Ho ChiKung,
Liu ChiaLing,
Christiani David C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the kaohsiung journal of medical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.439
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 2410-8650
pISSN - 1607-551X
DOI - 10.1016/s1607-551x(09)70456-5
Subject(s) - urine , medicine , creatinine , tobacco smoke , morning , urinary system , confidence interval , cotinine , urine collection device , zoology , physiology , toxicology , environmental health , nicotine , biology
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) contains relatively high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Urinary 1‐hydroxypyrene (1‐OHP), a metabolite of pyrene, is a good indicator of PAH exposure in occupational studies. In this study, we investigated the relationship between urinary 1‐OHP concentration and ETS exposure in preschool children. Forty preschool children, aged 24‐76 months, were studied during November and December, 1999. Two spot‐urine specimens (one in the morning immediately after the subject woke up and the other at night before the subject went to bed) were collected 1 day after completion of a questionnaire, in order to determine 1‐OHP concentrations by fluorescent spectrophotometry. Overall, urinary 1‐OHP concentrations were relatively low but detectable (morning: median, 0.021 μg/g creatinine; range, 0.002‐1.019 μg/g creatinine; night: median, 0.015 μg/g creatinine; range, 0.002‐1.328 μg/g creatinine). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the total number of cigarettes smoked by the children's fathers during the 3 days prior to collection of the urine specimens was significantly associated with their urinary 1‐OHP concentrations, after adjusting for other confounders. Each cigarette smoked by a child's father resulted in an average 9.6% increase in 1‐OHP concentration in the morning urine specimen (95% confidence interval = 1.8‐18.1%; p = 0.02). We did not find a significant increase in the 1‐OHP concentration in night urine specimens ( p = 0.19). Although the sample size was small, these findings indicate that urinary 1‐OHP may be a suitable biomarker of ETS carcinogen exposure in children.