某電気機器製造職場における尿中コチニン値測定による従業員のタバコ煙曝露状況の評価

Abstract

Quantitaions of urinary cotinine, a major metabolite of nicotine, by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), were performed in parallel with questionnaires consisting of items on smoking status, such as active and/or passive smokers, the number of cigarettes smoked, and the presence or absence of active smokers in the surroundings, for 504 employees in a light company. The volume and ventilation status of their working places were also surveyed. Smoking rates in the company were 56.8% in males and 23.0% in females. The cotinine values corrected by creatinine (cotinine-creatinine ratios, CCR) were remarkably higher (to the extent of 100 times) in active smokers than in non-smokers whether or not they felt exposure to ETS with a statistical significance (P＜0.01). The CCR of the passive smokers were significantly higher in the office workers than in the factory workers whether or not active smokers were in their homes. In the office non-smokers, the CCR values became significantly higher in members who felt they were not exposed to any tobacco smoke than in members who felt they were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS); which increase could not be found in the factory non-smokers. The volumes and ventilation capacities of the ,factory working places were 12.7 times and 3.3 times greater respectively than those of office working places. The results showed that the extent of exposure to ETS (actively and/or passively) were influenced by the volumes and the ventilation capacities of the working places and their accurate self-recognition of real exposure status to ETS. In the passive smokers, their ETS exposure seemed to be greater in the working places than in their homes. The present study has also shown that urinary cotinine measurement in parallel with suitable questionnaires is thus recommended to investigate the real status of both' active and passive exposure to ETS.