title: Medicine students and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although medicine students express positive attitudes toward providing lifestyle counseling, they require more instruction in many areas of health behavior in order to be helpful to their patients. The presented study included the students' questionnaires analysis regarding their lifestyle and exposure to tobacco smoke. The aim of this study was to examine students' exposure to chosen xenobiotics by determination of selected biomarkers in urine samples, which underlay the basis for exposure assessment towards tobacco smoke.
  
  
  METHODS
  The investigated group consisted of first- and second-year medicine students from the Silesian Medical University (N = 133). Data obtained from a questionnaire survey was compared with the results of chosen biomarkers determined in urine samples. The analyses of the main nicotine metabolites were carried out firstly with use of ELISA, followed by the TLC technique with densitometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to questionnaires, every third student examined was exposed to passive smoking. The mean concentration of the main nicotine metabolites determined by ELISA in urine samples of smoking students was 1293.52±396.70 μg/g creatinine. The results of the TLC analysis in the group of smoking students were as follows: for cotinine - 523.10±68.10 μg/g creatinine and for trans-3'-hydroxycotinine - 653.81±62.30 μg/g creatinine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Medicine students, regardless of their area of study, are a highly-exposed part of the population to tobacco smoke, not only actively but also passively. Tobacco smoke exposure can be assessed by ELISA as a screening method as well as by more specific TLC technique with densitometry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Medicine and Division of Dentistry, Medical University of Silesia, Zabrze, Poland. mszumska@vp.pl
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szumska
authors.forename: Krystyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tyrpień
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kowalska
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wielkoszyński
authors.forename: Cezary
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dobosz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000652:urine; D003367:Cotinine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000652:urine; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D012907:Smoking / Q000652:urine; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D016482:Urinalysis; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; C001381:hydroxycotinine; D003367:Cotinine