Urinary concentrations of PAH and VOC metabolites in marijuana users

Abstract

Background Marijuana is seeing increased therapeutic use, and is the world’s third most-popular recreational drug following alcohol and tobacco. This widening use poses increased exposure to potentially toxic combustion by-products from marijuana smoke and the potential for public health concerns. Objectives To compare urinary metabolites of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) among self-reported recent marijuana users and nonusers, while accounting for tobacco smoke exposure. Methods Measurements of PAH and VOC metabolites in urine samples were combined with questionnaire data collected from participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 2005 to 2012 in order to categorize participants (≥18 years) into exclusive recent marijuana users and nonusers. Adjusted geometric means (GMs) of urinary concentrations were computed for these groups using multiple regression analyses to adjust for potential confounders. Results Adjusted GMs of many individual monohydroxy PAHs (OH-PAHs) were significantly higher in recent marijuana users than in nonusers (p < 0.05). Urinary thiocyanate (p < 0.001) and urinary concentrations of many VOC metabolites, including metabolites of acrylonitrile (p < 0.001) and acrylamide (p < 0.001), were significantly higher in recent marijuana users than in nonusers. Conclusions We found elevated levels of biomarkers for potentially harmful chemicals among self-identified, recent marijuana users compared with nonusers. These findings suggest that further studies are needed to evaluate the potential health risks to humans from the exposure to these agents when smoking marijuana.

The influence of demographic and lifestyle factors on urinary levels of PAH metabolites—empirical analyses of Cycle 2 (2009–2011) CHMS data

“…Where error bars cannot be seen, they were smaller than the plotting symbol. [44], which showed a significant increase in the urinary levels of several monohydroxy PAHs in recent cannabis users [44].…”

Adolescent Exposure to Toxic Volatile Organic Chemicals From E-Cigarettes

“…Although we tried to eliminate exposure to blunts (tobacco mixed with marijuana) using NNAL, we could not exclude the potential contribution of VOC exposure from marijuana smoking on the day of the study. 24 Consequently, we estimated and tested regression models of logtransformed VOC values that were significant in the first set of analyses, including planned covariates (sex, race and/or ethnicity), with the additional covariate of self-reported frequency of marijuana use.…”

Total and differential white blood cell count in cannabis users: results from the cross-sectional National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005–2016

“…This increase might be related to the inflammatory effects of combustion by-products as the most common mode of cannabis use is smoking (Grotenhermen, 2003). The association of cannabis and WBCs was evident in heavy users only, which might indicate increased exposure to proinflammatory chemicals generated from smoking (Wei et al, 2016).…”