There is wide variability in cotinine levels per cigarette smoked. We hypothesized that in addition to smoking frequency, other behavioral measures of nicotine dependence, such as the time to first cigarette after waking, are associated with cotinine levels. To test this hypothesis, we measured plasma and urinary cotinine in a community-based study of 252 black and white daily cigarette smokers...

BACKGROUND Cigarette smoking is associated with adverse health effects, including cancer, respiratory illness, heart disease and stroke. National data on smoking prevalence often rely on self-reports. This study assesses the validity of self-reported cigarette smoking status among Canadians. DATA AND METHODS Data are from the 2007 to 2009 Canadian Health Measures Survey, a nationally represen...

Environmental tobacco smoke has been regarded as one of the most important public health issues. It has been estimated that approximately 700 millions of children in the world are exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). In this study parental smoking habits were determined. Then, the relationship between parent-reported estimates of children's exposure to ETS at home and children's urinar...

Setting appropriate cutoff values and the use of a highly sensitive analytical method allow for correct classification of the smoking status. Urine-saliva pairs samples of pregnant women in the second and third trimester, and saliva only in the first trimester were collected. Offline SPE and LC-ESI-MS/MS method was developed in the broad concentration range (saliva 0.4-1000 ng/mL, urine 0.8-400...

Residual oil fly ash is a chemically complex combustion product containing a significant component of potentially carcinogenic transition metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Various biomarkers of PAH exposure have been investigated previously, most notably 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP), in urine. In this study, we assessed the utility of r-1,t-2,3,c-4-tetrahydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrophe...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES Of the various biochemical markers used to validate the smoking status of a person, nicotine and continine are considered as good markers for both active and passive smoking. In the present study an attempt was made to estimate urinary levels of nicotine and cotinine in healthy individuals from north India using different types of tobacco to identify and validate the smo...

Background: Cigarette smoke is a major source of free radicals and oxidative stress. With a significant proportion of women still smoking during pregnancy, this common and avoidable exposure has the potential to influence infant oxidative status, which is implicated in the increased propensity for airway inflammation and asthma. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of maternal smoki...

BACKGROUND Cigarette smoke is a major source of free radicals and oxidative stress. With a significant proportion of women still smoking during pregnancy, this common and avoidable exposure has the potential to influence infant oxidative status, which is implicated in the increased propensity for airway inflammation and asthma. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of maternal smokin...

Objective: Second-hand smoke exposure in children is a recognized risk factor for asthma/wheezing. Even brief exposure can be harmful. Adult smoking prevalence in Greece is of the highest worldwide and pediatric asthma rates are raising. Our objective was to investigate parental smoking habits in homes of children with and without bronchial asthma/wheezing disorders. Methods: This is a case-con...

Cigarette design has changed markedly over the past 60 years and sales-weighed levels of tar and nicotine have decreased. Currently, cigarettes are classified as regular (>14.5 mg tar), light (>6.5-14.5 mg tar), and ultralight (< or =6.5 mg tar), based on a Federal Trade Commission-specified machine-smoking protocol. Epidemiologic studies suggest that there is no difference in lung cancer risk ...