Hair analysis–a biological marker for passive smoking in pregnancy and childhood
Abstract
Passive smoking has been shown to adversely affect the health of infants and children. We used hair analysis for nicotine and its metabolite cotinine as a biological marker for exposure to smoking in these two groups. Using radioimmunoassay we measured maternal and fetal hair concentrations of nicotine and cotinine in the motherinfant pairs belonging to three different groups based on the mother' smoking habits. The three groups were: active smokers, passive smokers and nonsmokers. There was a significant correlation between maternal and neonatal hair concentration for both, nicotine and cotinine. Mothers and infants in the smoking groups, both active and passive, had significantly higher hair concentrations of both, nicotine and cotinine than in the control, nonsmoking group. In an older cohort, we compared two groups: 78 asthmatic children were compared to 86 healthy children exposed to similar degrees of passive smoking. By using objective, biological markers, our study aimed at verifying whether asthmatic children are different from nonasthmatic children in the way their bodies handle nicotine. Our results show, that, despite the fact that parents of asthmatic children tend to smoke a lower number of cigarettes per day, their children had an average twofold higher concentrations of cotinine in their hair then the control, nonasthmatic children.
These studies document the importance of hair analysis as a tool for measuring exposure to cigarette smoke.
References
1 O'Campo R, Faden RR, Brown H, Gielen AC . The impact of pregnancy on women' prenatal and postpartum smoking behavior . American Journal of Preventive Medicine 1992;; 8: 8-13 .
2 Martin TR, Bracken MB . Association of low birth weight with passive smoke exposure in pregnancy . American Journal of Epidemiology 1986;; 124: 633-642 .
3 Kline J, Stein ZA, Susser M, Warburton D. Smoking: a risk factor for spontaneous abortion . New England Journal of Medicine 1977; 297: 793-796 .
4 Meyer MB, Jonas BS, Tonascia JA . Perinatal events associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy . American Journal of Epidemiology 1976;; 103: 464-476 .
5 Schoendorf KC, Keily JL . Relationship of sudden infant death syndrome to maternal smoking during and after pregnancy . Pediatrics 1992; 90: 905-908 .
6 Fried PA, O'Connell CM, Watkinson B. Sixtyand 72-month follow-up of children prenatally exposed to marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol: cognitive and language assessment . Journal for Development and Behaviour in Pediatrics 1992;; 13: 383-391 .
7 Martineq FD, Cline M, Burrows B. Increased incidence of asthma in children of smoking mothers . Pediatrics 1992;; 89: 21-26 .
8 Chilmonczyk BA et al. Association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and exacerbations of asthma in children . New England Journal of Medicine 1993;; 328: 1665-1669 .
9 Koren G, Feldman Y, MacLeod SM . Motherisk II: Analysis of the first year of counselling. In: Koren G (ed.) Maternal-Fetal Toxicology. Marcel Dekker, New York, NY 1990; pp 383-402.
10 Pley EAP et al. Assessment of tobacco-exposure during pregnancy; behavioral and biochemical changes . European Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology 1991; 40: 197-201 .
11 Benowitz NL, Jacob P, Jones RT, Rosenberg J. Interindividual variability in the metabolism and cardiovascular effects of nicotine in man . Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 1982;; 221: 368-372 .
12 Koren G, Sharav T, Pastuszak A. A multicenter prospective study of reproductive outcome following carbon monoxide poisoning in pregnancy . Reproductive Toxicology 1991; 5: 397-402 .
13 Eliopoulos C et al. Hair concentrations of nicotine and cotinine in active, passive and nonsmoking mothers and their newborn infants . Journal of American Medical Association 1994; 271: 621-623 .
14 Knight JM et al. Pharmacokinetic predisposition to nicotine from environmental tobacco smoke: A risk factor for pediatric asthma . Journal of Asthma 1998;; 35: 115-119 .
15 Pecoraro V, Astore IPL . Measurements of hair growth under physiological conditions. In: Orfanos CE, Happle R (eds.) Hair and hair Diseases. Springer-Verlag New York 1990: pp 237-254.
16 Langone JJ, Gjika HB, van Vunakis H. Nicotine and its metabolites. Radioimmunoassays for nicotine and cotinine . Biochemistry 1973; 12: 5015-5030 .
17 Makin J, Fried PA, Watkinson B. A comparison of active and passive smoking during pregnancy: Long-term effects . Neurotoxicology Teratology 1991;; 13: 5-12 .
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: April 1999
Issue published: April 1999
Keywords
PubMed: 10333315
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Human & Experimental Toxicology.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 57
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 45 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 39
- Drug exposure during pregnancy: Current understanding and approaches t...
- Hair and nail nicotine levels of mothers and their infants as valid bi...
- Environmental complex exposure and the risk of influenza-like illness ...
- Chemical evidence of prehistoric passive tobacco consumption by a huma...
- Association Between Chronic Exposure to Tobacco Smoke and Accumulation...
- Hair nicotine at 15 months old, tobacco exposure and wheeze or asthma ...
- Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Validity of Self-Report in Low-Income Wo...
- Effectiveness of a brief primary care intervention to reduce passive s...
- The coordination environment of copper in hair can be altered by treat...
- Utility and Cutoff Value of Hair Nicotine as a Biomarker of Long-Term...
- Determination of the coordination environment of Cu(II) in human hair ...
- Toxicology Testing in Alternative Specimen Matrices
- Hair as a biomarker of polybrominated diethyl ethers’ exposure in infa...
- References
- White blood cell DNA adducts in a cohort of asthmatic children exposed...
- Effects of HEPA Air Cleaners on Unscheduled Asthma Visits and Asthma S...
- Determinants of serum cotinine and hair cotinine as biomarkers of chil...
- The Effects of Prenatal Secondhand Smoke Exposure on Preterm Birth and...
- Collection of biological samples in forensic toxicology
- Changes in antidepressant metabolism in pregnancy evidenced by metabol...
- Measuring prenatal secondhand smoke exposure in mother–baby couplets
- Biological matrices for the evaluation of exposure to environmental to...
- Determinants of Hair Nicotine Concentrations in Nonsmoking Women and C...
- Method validation for measurement of hair nicotine level in nonsmokers
- An animal model of cigarette smoke-induced in utero growth retardation
- Hair Nicotine: Cotinine Metabolic Ratio in Pregnant Women: A New Metho...
- Bioanalytical procedures for monitoring in utero drug exposure
- The Role of Air Nicotine in Explaining Racial Differences in Cotinine ...
- Biomarkers of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in infants
- Clinical Applications of Hair Analysis
- Environmental tobacco smoke and sudden infant death syndrome: a review
- Racial Differences in Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke among Ch...
- Parental Smoking and Airway Reactivity in Healthy Infants
- Assessing nicotine metabolism in pregnancy—a novel approach using hair...
- Recent developments in meconium and hair testing methods for the confi...
- Occupational exposure of non‐smoking restaurant personnel to environme...
- Clinical considerations in study designs that use cotinine as a biomar...
- The miseries of passive smoiong
- Objective Assessment of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) Exposure in ...
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
View options
PDF/ePub
View PDF/ePubGet access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
