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Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked

BACKGROUND: Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) was classified as human carcinogen (K1) by the German Research Council in 1998. According to epidemiological studies, the relative risk especially for lung cancer might be twice as high in persons who have never smoked but who are in the highest exposure...

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Autores principales: Kolb, Stefanie, Brückner, Ulrike, Nowak, Dennis, Radon, Katja
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933666/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20704719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-9-49
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author Kolb, Stefanie
Brückner, Ulrike
Nowak, Dennis
Radon, Katja
author_facet Kolb, Stefanie
Brückner, Ulrike
Nowak, Dennis
Radon, Katja
author_sort Kolb, Stefanie
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) was classified as human carcinogen (K1) by the German Research Council in 1998. According to epidemiological studies, the relative risk especially for lung cancer might be twice as high in persons who have never smoked but who are in the highest exposure category, for example hospitality workers. In order to implement these results in the German regulations on occupational illnesses, a valid method is needed to retrospectively assess the cumulative ETS exposure in the hospitality environment. METHODS: A literature-based review was carried out to locate a method that can be used for the German hospitality sector. Studies assessing ETS exposure using biological markers (for example urinary cotinine, DNA adducts) or questionnaires were excluded. Biological markers are not considered relevant as they assess exposure only over the last hours, weeks or months. Self-reported exposure based on questionnaires also does not seem adequate for medico-legal purposes. Therefore, retrospective exposure assessment should be based on mathematical models to approximate past exposure. RESULTS: For this purpose a validated model developed by Repace and Lowrey was considered appropriate. It offers the possibility of retrospectively assessing exposure with existing parameters (such as environmental dimensions, average number of smokers, ventilation characteristics and duration of exposure). The relative risk of lung cancer can then be estimated based on the individual cumulative exposure of the worker. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, having adapted it to the German hospitality sector, an existing mathematical model appears to be capable of approximating the cumulative exposure. However, the level of uncertainty of these approximations has to be taken into account, especially for diseases with a long latency period such as lung cancer.
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spelling pubmed-29336662010-09-07 Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked Kolb, Stefanie Brückner, Ulrike Nowak, Dennis Radon, Katja Environ Health Review BACKGROUND: Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) was classified as human carcinogen (K1) by the German Research Council in 1998. According to epidemiological studies, the relative risk especially for lung cancer might be twice as high in persons who have never smoked but who are in the highest exposure category, for example hospitality workers. In order to implement these results in the German regulations on occupational illnesses, a valid method is needed to retrospectively assess the cumulative ETS exposure in the hospitality environment. METHODS: A literature-based review was carried out to locate a method that can be used for the German hospitality sector. Studies assessing ETS exposure using biological markers (for example urinary cotinine, DNA adducts) or questionnaires were excluded. Biological markers are not considered relevant as they assess exposure only over the last hours, weeks or months. Self-reported exposure based on questionnaires also does not seem adequate for medico-legal purposes. Therefore, retrospective exposure assessment should be based on mathematical models to approximate past exposure. RESULTS: For this purpose a validated model developed by Repace and Lowrey was considered appropriate. It offers the possibility of retrospectively assessing exposure with existing parameters (such as environmental dimensions, average number of smokers, ventilation characteristics and duration of exposure). The relative risk of lung cancer can then be estimated based on the individual cumulative exposure of the worker. CONCLUSION: In conclusion, having adapted it to the German hospitality sector, an existing mathematical model appears to be capable of approximating the cumulative exposure. However, the level of uncertainty of these approximations has to be taken into account, especially for diseases with a long latency period such as lung cancer. BioMed Central 2010-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC2933666/ /pubmed/20704719 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-9-49 Text en Copyright ©2010 Kolb et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review
Kolb, Stefanie
Brückner, Ulrike
Nowak, Dennis
Radon, Katja
Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
title Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
title_full Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
title_fullStr Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
title_full_unstemmed Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
title_short Quantification of ETS exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
title_sort quantification of ets exposure in hospitality workers who have never smoked
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2933666/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20704719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1476-069X-9-49
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