Tobacco smoke habits in a group of adolescents: responsibility of the cohabitants in the active and passive exposure

Is grand-parental smoking associated with adolescent obesity? A three-generational study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES

Data from previous studies consistently suggest that maternal smoking is positively associated with obesity later in life. Whether this association persists across generations is unknown. We examined whether grand-parental smoking was positively associated with overweight status in adolescence.

SUBJECT/METHODS

Participants were grandmother-mother-child triads in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II), the Nurses Mothers' Cohort Study and the Growing up Today Study (GUTS). Grandmothers provided information on their and their partner's smoking during pregnancy with the child's mother. Information on child's weight and height at ages 12 (N=3094) and 17 (N=3433) was obtained from annual or biennial GUTS questionnaires. We used logistic regression to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) of being overweight or obese, relative to normal weight.

RESULTS

Grand-maternal smoking during pregnancy was not associated with overweight status in adolescence. After adjusting for covariates, the OR of being overweight or obese relative to normal weight at age 12 years in girls whose grandmothers smoked 15+ cigarettes daily during pregnancy was 1.21 (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.74-1.98; P(trend)=0.31) and 1.07 (0.65-1.77; P(trend)=0.41) in boys. Grand-paternal smoking during pregnancy was associated with being overweight or obese at age 12 in girls only, but not at age 17 for either sex: the OR for being overweight or obese at age 12 was 1.38 (95% CI 1.01-1.89; P(trend)=0.03) in girls and 1.31 (95% CI 0.97-1.76; P(trend)=0.07) in boys. Among children of non-smoking mothers, the OR for granddaughter obesity for grand-paternal smoking was attenuated and no longer significant (OR 1.28 (95% CI 0.87-1.89; P(trend)=0.18)).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that the association between maternal smoking and offspring obesity may not persist beyond the first generation. However, grand-paternal smoking may affect the overweight status of the granddaughter, likely through the association between grand-paternal smoking and maternal smoking.

Formaldehyde and tobacco smoke as alkylating agents: the formation of N-methylenvaline in pathologists and in plastic laminate workers

OBJECTIVE

Aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between the concentration of formaldehyde in air and the alkylation of hemoglobin to form a terminal N-methylenvaline residue in three occupationally exposed groups: a) technicians of pathology wards, b) workers of the plastic laminates industry, and c) a control group. All subjects recruited in this study were also tested on their smoking habits.

METHODS

Formaldehyde adsorbed on passive air samplers was quantified by HPLC with UV detection (360 nm), cotinine was quantified by GC-MS. Terminal hemoglobin N-methylenvaline was determined by treating globine under reducing conditions with pentafluorophenyl isothiocyanate to yield a derivative, subsequently detected by GC-MS. One-way analysis of variance was performed to compare among the three groups the biomarkers considered in this study.

RESULTS

For air-FA and N-methylenvaline a difference between the three groups was detected (p < 0.0001) and a significant higher concentration in the two professionally exposed groups was proved. Mean values for FA (μg/m(3)): group a) 188.6, group b) 210.1, and group c) 41.4; mean values for N-methylenvaline (nmol/g of globin): group a) 377.9, group b) 342.8, and group c) 144.8. Conversely, the comparison between the two professionally exposed groups, a) vs b), does not show any significant difference highlighting similar exposition to FA and, consequently, similar biological response. Tobacco smoke proves to have a minor impact on the formation of N-methylenvaline molecular adduct.

CONCLUSIONS

A positive correlation was demonstrated between professional exposition to air-formaldehyde and hemoglobin alkylation to form N-methylenvaline molecular adduct in two occupationally exposed groups of subjects considered in the present study. In comparison with occupational exposition, tobacco smoke proved to have a minor impact on the formation of N-methylenvaline molecular adduct.

Correlating atmospheric and biological markers in studies of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure and dose in children and adults

OBJECTIVE

We sought to directly compare secondhand smoke (SHS) atmospheric markers to each other and to SHS dosimetric biomarkers, permitting intercomparison of clinical and atmospheric studies.

METHODS

We used atmospheric and pharmacokinetic (PK) models for the quantitative estimation of SHS exposure and dose for infants, children, and adults, based on building smoker density and air exchange rate, and from exposure duration, default PK parameters, and respiration rates.

RESULTS

We estimate the SHS serum cotinine doses for the typical and most-exposed individuals in the U.S. population; predictions compare well to measurements on a national probability sample. Using default respiration rates, we estimate serum cotinine dose from SHS nicotine exposure for 40 adults exposed to SHS in an environmental chamber; predictions agreed with observations. We correlate urine cotinine and hair nicotine levels for 127 infants exposed to parental smoking, and estimate corresponding atmospheric nicotine exposure via PK modeling.

CONCLUSIONS

Our "Rosetta Stone" Equations allow the SHS atmospheric markers, respirable particles, nicotine, and carbon monoxide, to be related to the SHS biomarkers, cotinine in blood, urine, and saliva and nicotine in hair, permitting intercomparison of clinical and atmospheric studies of SHS for the first time.

Missed opportunities for prevention: failure to identify smoking in the parents of adolescent patients

Smoking is an addiction that often begins in childhood or adolescence. Factors associated with early smoking initiation include parental smoking and socialization about smoking with their children. Previous studies evaluating the history obtained during routine pediatric appointments have not focused on parental smoking history and counseling. In this study, seventy-three (73) adolescents (mean age: 15.2 years; 77% female; 64% African-American) seen for medical care in a primary care clinic and their accompanying parent(s) (mean age: 43.5 years; 91% female) were surveyed about smoking followed by a review of each chart measuring documentation of adolescent and parent smoking history and counseling. Although the majority of adolescents were questioned about smoking (92%), parents were rarely questioned (1%) (p < 0.05). Adolescents were counseled about smoking (7%) and other risk-taking behaviors (44%); however, no parents were counseled about smoking or smoking socialization. Physicians frequently overlook an important factor in the prevention of smoking initiation at a young age, parental smoking history and counseling.