Environmental tobacco smoke interference in the assessment of the health impact of a municipal waste incinerator on children through urinary thioether assay

The urinary elimination of thioethers urinary thioethers (UT) was studied i n 83 schoolchildren living in two different areas of the city of Mataro, wi th special attention paid to the influence of a waste incinerator and of th e smoking habits of their parents. The mean UT values were 8.79 +/- 3.23 an d 7.52 +/- 3.23 mmol/mol creatinine in the area close to the incinerator (A 1) and in the area far away from it (A2) respectively (statistically n.s.). Children exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) at home presented in creased levels of UT (8.60 +/- 3.11 vs 5.93 +/- 3.22 mmol/mol creatinine; P = 0.002). Considering the two exposures together (waste incinerator and ET S), no differences were found between the two areas studied (A1 and A2) in non-exposed (ETS) children, whereas slight differences were found when comp aring highest ETS exposed children fi om the two areas (10.18 +/- 2.70 vs 8 .00 +/- 3.42 mmol/mol creatinine; P = 0.04). Exposure to ETS could affect h ealth more than pollutants from a waste incinerator and may interfere with non-selective assays such as urinary thioethers.