AIR NICOTINE AND SALIVA COTININE AS INDICATORS OF WORKPLACE PASSIVE SMOKING EXPOSURE AND RISK

We model nicotine from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in office air and salivary cotinine in nonsmoking U.S. workers. We estimate that: a n average salivary cotinine level of 0.4 ng/ml corresponds to an incre ased lifetime mortality risk of 1/1000 for lung cancer, and 1/100 for heart disease; >95% of ETS-exposed office workers exceed OSHA's signif icant risk level for heart disease mortality, and 60% exceed significa nt risk for lung cancer mortality; 4000 heart disease deaths and 400 l ung cancer deaths occur annually among office workers from passive smo king in the workplace, at the current 28% prevalence of unrestricted s moking in the office workplace.