Nicotine, Cotinine, and Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamines Measured in Children’s Silicone Wristbands in Relation to Secondhand Smoke and E-cigarette Vapor Exposure

Abstract

Introduction Simple silicone wristbands (WB) hold promise for exposure assessment in children. We previously reported strong correlations between nicotine in WB worn by children and urinary cotinine (UC). Here, we investigated differences in WB chemical concentrations among children exposed to secondhand smoke from conventional cigarettes (CC) or secondhand vapor from electronic cigarettes (EC), and children living with nonusers of either product (NS). Methods Children (n = 53) wore three WB and a passive nicotine air sampler for 7 days and one WB for 2 days, and gave a urine sample on day 7. Caregivers reported daily exposures during the 7-day period. We determined nicotine, cotinine, and tobacco–specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) concentrations in WB, nicotine in air samplers, and UC through isotope-dilution liquid chromatography with triple-quadrupole mass spectrometry. Results Nicotine and cotinine levels in WB in children differentiated between groups of children recruited into NS, EC exposed, and CC exposed groups in a similar manner to UC. WB levels were significantly higher in the CC group (WB nicotine median 233.8 ng/g silicone, UC median 3.6 ng/mL, n = 15) than the EC group (WB nicotine median: 28.9 ng/g, UC 0.5 ng/mL, n = 19), and both CC and EC group levels were higher than the NS group (WB nicotine median: 3.7 ng/g, UC 0.1 ng/mL, n = 19). TSNAs, including the known carcinogen NNK, were detected in 39% of WB. Conclusions Silicone WB show promise for sensitive detection of exposure to tobacco-related contaminants from traditional and electronic cigarettes and have potential for tobacco control efforts. Implications Silicone WB worn by children can absorb nicotine, cotinine, and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, and amounts of these compounds are closely related to the child’s urinary cotinine. Levels of tobacco-specific compounds in the silicone WB can distinguish patterns of children’s exposure to secondhand smoke and e-cigarette vapor. Silicone WB are simple to use and acceptable to children and, therefore, may be useful for tobacco control activities such as parental awareness and behavior change, and effects of smoke-free policy implementation.

Use of E-Cigarettes and Associated Factors among Youth in Thailand

“…and those who use e-cigarettes may perceive that e-cigarette aerosol is safer for their children (Drehmer et al, 2019). Studies show that secondhand exposures to e-cigarette aerosol result in significant changes in biomarker concentrations such as nicotine (Johnson et al, 2019;Son et al, 2020;Quintana et al, 2021), acrolein (Johnson et al, 2019), tobacco-specific nitrosamines (Quintana et al, 2021) and airborne PM 2.5 (Son et al, 2020). Health risks of e-cigarettes to bystanders include upper respiratory tracts and eyes' irritation and systemic effects of nicotine such as increased heart rate and blood pressure (Visser et al, 2019).…”

Identification of newly formed toxic chemicals in E-cigarette aerosols with Orbitrap mass spectrometry and implications on E-cigarette control

“…indoor surfaces) ENDS aerosol in fact, children were shown to be exposed to significant levels of nicotine measured in wristbands as confirmed by highly correlated urinary cotinine measurements (even though nicotine/cotinine levels were lower when compared to children exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke). 39 The formation of the NIC-PG adducts highly depended on the power output P of the ENDS. The relation between the ratio of peak areas between NIC-PG and nicotine and power output appears to increase nonlinearly (Figure 4).…”

Operationalizing the Exposome Using Passive Silicone Samplers

“…Since the use of silicone PSDs is a new approach for passive exposure monitoring, 38 of the 44 reviewed studies combined PSDs with validated approaches for assessing exposures, including comparison to biomarker levels and established sampling devices. These include quantification of known exposure biomarkers in blood and urine [45,68,81,87,88], hand wipes [64,75,87], active air sampling [45,46,89,90], and low-density polyethylene PSDs [67,91], as well as using questionnaires to estimate past exposures [60,61,77,78,81,82,84,87,88,92,93]. Findings include a significant correlation between the PSD chemical concentrations and accepted biomarker measurements in urine [45,87], demonstrating usability of silicone PSDs to evaluate personal exposures.…”

“…The use of liquid chromatography (LC) methods, which enables detection of many contemporaryuse pesticides and emerging chemicals of concern, was also limited. Five studies included LC-MS analysis of wristbands, with one measuring pesticide exposures, one phenol exposure, one SVOCs, and the remaining two focused on passive tobacco smoke exposure [80][81][82][83][84]. None of these studies used LC-HRMS, a key technology for untargeted screening of many environmental exposures [85,86].…”

“…Development of the Fresh Air wristband, which uses thermal desorption to analyze polydimethylsiloxane PSDs, shows it is possible to measure many different volatile and semi-volatile environmental exposures, and can be combined with untargeted analysis to identify exposures associated with health outcomes [61][62][63]. Although limited, LC analyses of wristbands have all used solvent extraction sample preparation methods, which is consistent with better detection of non-volatile and polar compounds [80][81][82][83][84].…”