HAIR NICOTINE CONCENTRATIONS IN MOTHERS AND CHILDREN IN RELATION TO PARENTAL SMOKING

The health effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure const itute a main public health problem. Lack of presice methods for assess ing personal tobacco smoke exposure, makes it difficult to estimate th e health effects of such exposure. Measuring hair nicotine concentrati ons could be an improvement in the assessment of personal tobacco smok e exposure. The objective of the present study was to estimate quantit atively the relation between hair nicotine concentrations in mothers a nd children and tobacco smoke exposure assessed by questionnaires. Mot hers' and children's hair nicotine concentrations in the proximal 2 cm of hair were measured in 94 families with children 12-36 months of ag e: 25 nonsmoking families, 40 families with one smoking parent, and 29 families with both parents smoking. Qustionnaire information on tobac co smoke exposure was collected from the same families. In multivariat e linear regression analysis, children's nicotine levels were linearly related to daily number of cigarettes smoked at home by both mothers (0.8 mg/g increase per cigarette, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.43-1. 18), and fathers (1.3, 0.81-1.73). Mothers' nicotine levels were linea rly related to both personal smoking (2.7, 1.75-3.55) and fathers' smo king at home (2.1,0.74-3.49). Hair nicotine seems to be a good quantit ative measure of exposure to tobacco smoke during the previous months both among active and passive smokers. The non-invasive and simple col lection procedure makes the method especially suitable for estimating tobacco smoke exposure in children.