title: Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and urinary 1-hydroxypyrene levels in preschool children.
abstract: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) contains relatively high concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (1-OHP), a metabolite of pyrene, is a good indicator of PAH exposure in occupational studies. In this study, we investigated the relationship between urinary 1-OHP concentration and ETS exposure in preschool children. Forty preschool children, aged 24-76 months, were studied during November and December, 1999. Two spot-urine specimens (one in the morning immediately after the subject woke up and the other at night before the subject went to bed) were collected 1 day after completion of a questionnaire, in order to determine 1-OHP concentrations by fluorescent spectrophotometry. Overall, urinary 1-OHP concentrations were relatively low but detectable (morning: median, 0.021 microg/g creatinine; range, 0.002-1.019 microg/g creatinine; night: median, 0.015 microg/g creatinine; range, 0.002-1.328 microg/g creatinine). Multiple linear regression analyses revealed that the total number of cigarettes smoked by the children's fathers during the 3 days prior to collection of the urine specimens was significantly associated with their urinary 1-OHP concentrations, after adjusting for other confounders. Each cigarette smoked by a child's father resulted in an average 9.6% increase in 1-OHP concentration in the morning urine specimen (95% confidence interval = 1.8-18.1%; p = 0.02). We did not find a significant increase in the 1-OHP concentration in night urine specimens (p = 0.19). Although the sample size was small, these findings indicate that urinary 1-OHP may be a suitable biomarker of ETS carcinogen exposure in children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, Kaohsiung Municipal Tatung Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsiu-Ting
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Ming-Tsang
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Russ
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.forename: Ema
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Chi-Kung
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Chia-Ling
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Christiani
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011721:Pyrenes / Q000032:analysis*; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D014556:Urine / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D011721:Pyrenes; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; C033146:1-hydroxypyrene