BACKGROUND Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure is a global public health problem. Ghana currently has no legislation to prevent smoking in public places. To provide data on SHS levels in hospitality venues in Ghana the authors measured (1) airborne particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) and nicotine concentrations and (2) hair nicotine concentrations in non-smoking employees. Quantifying SHS ...

Smoking has been positively associated with hearing loss in human. However, its effect on the cochlea has not been previously evaluated. Aim of work is to investigate the effect of nicotine, which is the primary pharmacological component of tobacco, on the structure of the cochlea of adult male guinea pigs. Fifteen male guinea pigs were classified into two groups: group I (control) and group II...

Noninvasive validation of cigarette smoking behavior is necessary for large population studies, especially with adolescents, where peer pressures can compromise self-report. Saliva and urine samples provide biological material for confirmation of recent nicotine intake by analysis for cotinine, the major metabolite of nicotine. However, detection of infrequent use of cigarettes can be missed in...

Nicotine and cotinine in hair are good biomarkers for assessing long-term exposure to smoking. However, analytical devices such as GC/MS are associated with high cost and are not widely used. HPLC/UV is used widely in laboratories, but is unsuitable for measurement of minor constituents, except when using the column-switching method. Thus, we aimed to establish a simple, inexpensive and sensiti...

BACKGROUND The influence of systemic comorbidities on the success of scalp cooling during chemotherapy (CT) is widely unexplored. Comorbidities often require additional medication which itself can occasionally cause alopecia. This study investigates the influence of selected parameters on the efficacy of scalp cooling for the prevention of CT-induced alopecia. PATIENTS AND METHODS 226 cancer ...

Chronic exposure to specific carcinogens present in secondhand smoke has been associated with different types of cancers. Hair is an ideal matrix to develop a proper biomarker as it absorbs substances in circulation and allows measuring their average concentration over long periods of time. A method was developed for the simultaneous quantification of nicotine, cotinine, NNN, NNK and NNAL in 20...

UNLABELLED : The aim of this study was to describe the association between passive smoking and the severity of acute lower respiratory illnesses (ALRI) among 351 children aged 3-27 months admitted to hospital. A total of 297 children provided hair samples, which were analysed for hair nicotine levels as an indicator of passive smoking. A severity of illness grading system was developed by using...

AIMS To evaluate the pathobiologic effects of long-term treatment with nicotine of A/J mice susceptible to tobacco-induced lung carcinogenesis. MAIN METHODS Experimental group of mice received subcutaneous injections of the LD(50) dose of (-)nicotine hydrogen tartrate of 3 mg/kg/day, 5 days per week for 24 months, and control group received the vehicle phosphate-buffered saline. KEY FINDING...

BACKGROUND Prevalence of passive smoke exposure is relatively unknown in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). Previous studies have attempted to establish this relationship using subjective, questionnaire-based methodologies to assess smoke exposure, thus introducing the potential for error bias. The purpose of this study was to accurately determine the prevalence of passive smoke exposure in CRS and ...

The aim of this component of the German Study on Sudden Infant Death was to determine (1) nicotine concentrations in hair (NCH), as a marker of long standing exposure to tobacco, (2) cotinine concentrations in pericardial fluid (CCP) and (3) cotinine concentrations in liquor cerebrospinalis (CCL), the latter measures being markers of recent exposure to tobacco in the last few hours of life. The...