Environmental Tobacco Smoke Measuring Exposures and Assessing Health Effects (1986) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 1-12
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include a toxicological profile of sidestream and environmental tobacco smoke; ~ review the epidemiologic and related literature on the health effects of exposure to ETS; and recommend future exposure monitoring, modeling, and epidemiologic research. To address these and related issues, the NRC formed the Committee on Passive Smoking in the Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology of the Commission on Life Sciences.
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From page 2... ...
Undiluted SS contains higher concentrations of some toxic compounds than undiluted MS, including ammonia, volatile amines, volatile nitrosamines, nicotine decomposition products, and aromatic amines. However, concentrations of these SS emissions are considerably diluted in the indoor space where ETS exposures take place.
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From page 3... ...
Future epidemiologic studies should incorporate into their design several of these exposure assessment methods in order to assess exposures to ETS more accurately and to estimate dose.
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" There are great difficulties in developing uniform questions that elicit unambiguous replies and, more particularly, in using these replies to make firm quantitative estimates of exposure. They can be used, however, as a basis for classifying individuals into broad categories of exposure, recognizing the problems such as incorrectly estimating exposure through errors in reporting of current smoking habits, neglecting exposure to ETS in other environments like workplaces or public places, and reporting an exsmoker as a nonsmoker.
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From page 5... ...
Both air monitoring and modeling clearly indicate that RSP concentrations will be elevated over background levels in indoor spaces when even low smoking rates occur. The importance of variation in the input parameterssuch as room size, temperature, humidity, air exchange rate, and numbers of cigarettes smoked-should be noted when interpreting the data on the constituents of ETS obtained from personal monitors and indoor space monitors.
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From page 6... ...
Thiocyanate, as measured in saliva, serum, or urine, does not appear to be sufficiently sensitive as an indicator of ETS exposure. Similarly, exhaled carbon monoxide and carboxyhemogiobin are not sufficiently sensitive to moderate or low levels of ETS exposure and thus are not particularly useful biological markers for exposure to ETS, except in experimental, acute exposure situations.
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From page 7... ...
Most epidemiologic studies of chronic health effects have been conducted on persons who have had long-term exposures to ETS from household members. The studies do not directly address chronic health effects in individuals who ace exposed at work or have occasional exposures in the home or elsewhere.
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From page 8... ...
There is little correlation between positive reactions to skin tests and self-reported complaints of tobacco smoke sensitivity. Research is needed; to evaluate the medical importance in atopic persons of these positive reactions to skin tests using ETS extracts and to relate immune response on skin tests to subjective complaints about the noxious, irritating properties of tobacco smoke.
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Some studies have reported that infants of smoking parents are hospitalized for respiratory infections more frequently than children of nonsmokers. Among children aged under 1 year, studies are remarkably consistent in showing an increased risk of respiratory infections among children living in homes where parents smoke.
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Estimates of the magnitude of the increased risk vary. Among studies of various populations in Europe, Asia, and North America, the risk of lung cancer ~ roughly 30~o higher for nonsmoking spouses of smokers than it is for nonsmoking spouses of nonsmokers.
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From page 11... ...
Since carcinogenic agents contained in ETS are inhaled by nonsmokers, in the absence of a threshold for carcinogenic effects, an increased risk of lung cancer due to ETS exposure is biologically plausible. Laboratory studies would be important in determining the concentrations of carcinogenic constituents of ETS present in typical daily environments.
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From page 12... ...
For all postnatal outcomes, it is often not possible to differentiate the effect of in utero exposure to ETS from subsequent childhood exposures to ETS. Nonsmoking pregnant women exposed to smoking spouses have been reported to produce babies of Tower birthweight than nonsmoking women with nonsmoking spouses.
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