Volatile organic compounds as breath biomarkers for active and passive smoking.

Abstract

We used real-time breath measurement technology to investigate the suitability of some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as breath biomarkers for active and passive smoking and to measure actual exposures and resulting breath concentrations for persons exposed to tobacco smoke. Experiments were conducted with five smoker/nonsmoker pairs. The target VOCs included benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and the cigarette smoke biomarker 2,5-dimethylfuran. This study includes what we believe to be the first measurements of 1,3-butadiene in smokers' and nonsmokers' breath. The 1,3-butadiene and 2,5-dimethylfuran peak levels in the smokers' breath were similar (360 and 376 microg/m(3), respectively); the average benzene peak level was 522 microg/m(3). We found higher peak values of the target chemicals and shorter residence times in the body than previously reported, probably because of the improved time resolution made possible by the continuous breath measurement method. The real-time breath analyzer also showed the presence of the chemicals after exposure in the breath of the nonsmokers, but at greatly reduced levels. Single breath samples collected in evacuated canisters and analyzed independently with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry confirmed the presence of the target compounds in the postexposure breath of the nonsmokers but indicated that there was some contamination of the breath analyzer measurements. This was likely caused by desorption of organics from condensed tar in the analyzer tubing and on the quartz fiber filter used to remove particles. We used the decay data from the smokers to estimate residence times for the target chemicals. A two-compartment exponential model generally gave a better fit to the experimental decay data from the smokers than a single-compartment model. Residence times for benzene, 1,3-butadiene, and 2,5-dimethylfuran ranged from 0.5 (1,3-butadiene) to 0.9 min (benzene) for tau1 and were essentially constant (14 min) for tau2. These findings will be useful in models of environmental tobacco smoke exposure and risk.

Determination of Volatile Organic Compounds for a Systematic Evaluation of Third-Hand Smoking

“…The peaks of acetone, benzene and toluene were also detected in nonsmoker's breath samples; however, these concentrations were clearly higher in the smoker's breath. Additionally, many VOCs were only detected in the smokers' breath; especially, 2,5-DMF has been recognized as a tobacco smoke biomarker in the smoker's breath, 19,20 and actually detected only in the smokers' breath in this work. For all of the smokers' breath samples, the level of ammonia was below the LOD of the commercially-available detection tube.…”

Capillary thermal desorption unit for near real-time analysis of VOCs at sub-trace levels. Application to the analysis of environmental air contamination and breath samples

“…As can be seen in Table 2, the maximum concentration levels found for these compounds in non-smokers were always higher than the minimum levels found in smokers. Previous studies [9,12,13] found that benzene content in breath decreases rapidly to pre-exposure levels in less than 1 hour after smoking.…”

“…The possibility of using breath tests to evaluate exposure to ETS is very promising given that it is a procedure that is safe and easy to perform. Preliminary studies have suggested that some VOCs detected in breath samples may be biomarkers (e.g., 1,3-butadiene, benzene, 2,5-dimethylfuran) [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Breath biomarkers in toxicology

“…(Jarvis et al 1980;Kharitonov et al 1995;Wester et al 1986aWester et al , b, 1987aGordon et al 1995;Gordon 1990). To date, smoking status is often used as a major factor in the validation of new technologies for breath analyses as it is well known that toxicity markers of all sorts should be differentiated in smokers versus nonsmokers (Santini et al 2016;Kushch et al 2008;Basanta et al 2010;Španel and Smith 1996).…”