title: Determinants of children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS): a study in Southern Germany.
abstract: Maternal smoking has been repeatedly found to be the most important determinant of children's exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Here, we further investigated predictors for the urinary cotinine/creatinine ratio (CCR, ng/mg) in 1220 preschool children for the year 1996. Children from smoking homes (35.1%) had significantly higher CCR than children from nonsmoking homes (mean: 55.5 vs. 14.9 ng/mg). The level of education of the parents was a strong predictor for CCRs even after adjusting for number of cigarettes smoked, maternal smoking and dwelling space. Additionally, dwelling space was inversely related to children's urinary cotinine level. The CCR- levels in children investigated in 1996 and 1998 were significantly correlated (Pearson's r=0.67). The parents of 806 children agreed for a visit to their homes. In 79 of the 536 (14.7%) of the self-reported, nonsmoking households, smoking was admitted during the visit. The mean urinary CCR of these children was 25.2 ng/mg. We conclude that in addition to parental smoking behaviour, other variables such as dwelling space and social and educational status predict the children's exposure to ETS. Our data also revealed that a considerable percentage of parents denied the ETS exposure of their children at home.
authors.affiliation: ABF, Analytisch-biologisches Forschungslabor, Goethestrasse 20, 80336 München, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Krämer
authors.forename: Irmtrud
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Meger-Kossien
authors.forename: Kirsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Riedel
authors.forename: Wolf-Dieter
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Heller
authors.forename: Elke
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Link
authors.forename: Johannes-Georg
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Gostomzyk
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ring
authors.forename: Heidrun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Behrendt
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003367:Cotinine / Q000032:analysis / Q000652:urine*; D003404:Creatinine / Q000032:analysis / Q000652:urine*; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D003404:Creatinine; D003367:Cotinine