Environmental Tobacco Smoke in Occupational Settings: Effect and Susceptibility Biomarkers in Workers From Lisbon Restaurants and Bars

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been recognized as a major health hazard by environmental and public health authorities worldwide. In Portugal, smoke-free laws are in force for some years, banning smoking in most indoor public spaces. However, in hospitality venues such as restaurants and bars, owners can still choose between a total smoke-free policy or a partial smoking restriction with designated smoking areas, if adequate reinforced ventilation systems are implemented. Despite that, a previous study showed that workers remained continuously exposed to higher ETS pollution in Lisbon restaurants and bars where smoking was still allowed, comparatively to total smoke-free venues. This was assessed by measurements of indoor PM2.5 and urinary cotinine, a biomarkers of tobacco smoke exposure, demonstrating that partial smoking restrictions do not effectively protect workers from ETS. The aim of the present work was to characterize effect and susceptibility biomarkers in non-smokers from those hospitality venues occupationally exposed to ETS comparatively to non-exposed ones. A group of smokers was also included for comparison. The sister chromatid exchange (SCE), micronucleus (MN) and comet assays in whole peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs) and the micronucleus assay in exfoliated buccal cells, were used as biomarkers of genotoxicity. Furthermore, a comet assay after ex vivo challenge of leukocytes with an alkylating agent, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), was used to analyze the repair capacity of those cells. Genetic polymorphisms in genes associated with metabolism and DNA repair were also included. The results showed no clear association between occupational exposure to ETS and the induction of genotoxicity. Interestingly, the leukocytes from non-smoking ETS-exposed individuals displayed lower DNA damage levels in response to the ex vivo EMS challenge, in comparison to those from non-exposed workers, suggesting a possible adaptive response. The contribution of individual susceptibility to the effect biomarkers studied was unclear, deserving further investigation.

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Household Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure and Respiratory Health in School Age Children

Acta Facultatis Medicae Naissensis ◽

10.2478/v10283-012-0024-4 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 29 (4) ◽

pp. 175-180

Author(s):

Maja Nikolić ◽

Aleksandra Stanković ◽

Ivana Mladenović Ćirić

Keyword(s):

Environmental Tobacco Smoke ◽

Tobacco Smoke ◽

Respiratory Symptoms ◽

Indoor Air Pollution ◽

Health Hazard ◽

Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure ◽

Smoke Exposure ◽

Air Pollutant ◽

Tobacco Smoke Exposure ◽

Common Component

SUMMARY In the recent years the exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been an important public health hazard, especially in Serbia, a country with too many smokers. A common component of tobacco smoke is particulate matter less than 10μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), which is considered to be the most dangerous air pollutant for health. The aim of this paper was to investigate the association between respiratory symptoms and illnesses in schoolchildren in relation to their environmental tobacco smoke exposure. We conducted an epidemiological study that included 708 participants (49.15 % male) aged 11-14 years from Niš, Serbia. The children were surveyed by original structured questionnaire, based on the instrument developed for similar investigations. Data about the prevalence of respiratory symptoms in the last 12-month period of life and lifetime prevalence of respiratory illnesses were obtained. The questionnaire also included items about other indoor environmental determinants. Tobacco smoke was the most prevalent source of indoor air pollution at children’s home (60.73%). We found a significant association between ETS exposure and increased prevalence of dyspnea, wheezing, bronchitis and asthma among children. It is necessary to inform parents in Serbia on the health effects of ETS exposure during childhood and to encourage them to change smoking habits in order to protect their children from ETS exposure at home.

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Health hazard evaluation report: HETA-2005-0076; 2005-0201-3080, environmental and biological assessment of environmental tobacco smoke exposure among casino dealers, Bally's, Paris, and Caesars Palace Casinos, Las Vegas, Nevada.

10.26616/nioshheta200500763080 ◽

2009 ◽

Keyword(s):

Environmental Tobacco Smoke ◽

Tobacco Smoke ◽

Las Vegas ◽

Health Hazard ◽

Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure ◽

Smoke Exposure ◽

Tobacco Smoke Exposure ◽

Biological Assessment ◽

Hazard Evaluation ◽

Evaluation Report

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Parental Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice on Tobacco Use, Smoking Cessation, and Children's Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure

Frontiers in Public Health ◽

10.3389/fpubh.2021.733667 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Siyu Dai ◽

Chun Ting Au ◽

Michael Ho Ming Chan ◽

Richard Kin Ting Kam ◽

Albert Martin Li ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Smoking Cessation ◽

Tobacco Use ◽

Environmental Tobacco Smoke ◽

Tobacco Smoke ◽

Parental Education ◽

Parental Knowledge ◽

Tobacco Smoke Exposure ◽

Attitude And Practice ◽

Smoke Free Policy ◽

Knowledge Attitude And Practice

Background: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure in children ranks one of the major public health problems in our time. Poor parental knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) on ETS often contribute to worse exposure of the kids. Thus, we aimed to document parental KAP regarding tobacco use, smoking cessation and children's ETS exposure, and to analyse how knowledge and attitude relate to practice.Methods: Self-administered KAP questionnaires were distributed to smoking parents recruited from the pediatric unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital, which provides pediatric service to a population of 1.2 million in Hong Kong. The 60-item questionnaire had a range of 0–38 for knowledge, 0–44 for attitude, and 0–40 for practice. Descriptive analyses were performed for KAP response, regression analyses were performed for the exploration of associations and identification of predictive indicators.Results: 145 smoking parents (mean age: 38.0 ± 6.7 yrs.; male: 85.5%) were included. Less than half (39.3%) of them reported a smoke-free policy at home. Among those parents who had private cars, less than half (45.2%) of them had smoke-free policy in their car that they never smoked in the car. Only 25.5% of the participants correctly answered ≥70% of the knowledge questions, and 11.8 % of the participants gave favorable responses to ≥70% of the attitude questions. The total knowledge and the total attitudes score were positively associated (r = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.35–0.79, p < 0.001), yet they were only modestly correlated with parental practice on children's ETS exposure. By multivariate regressions, potential predictive factors for more favorable parental KAP included higher household income, lower parental nicotine dependence level and breastfeeding practice.Conclusions: Parental KAP related to tobacco use and children's ETS exposure needs improvement to address the significant gap between recommended and actual practice. The weak association between knowledge and practice suggested that parental education alone is not adequate to combat ETS exposure in children.

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