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Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana

BACKGROUND: Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure is a global public health problem. Ghana currently has no legislation to prevent smoking in public places. To provide data on SHS levels in hospitality venues in Ghana the authors measured (1) airborne particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) and ni...

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Autores principales: Agbenyikey, Wilfred, Wellington, Edith, Gyapong, John, Travers, Mark J, Breysse, Patrick N, McCarty, Kathleen M, Navas-Acien, Ana
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Group 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20930057
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.036012
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author Agbenyikey, Wilfred
Wellington, Edith
Gyapong, John
Travers, Mark J
Breysse, Patrick N
McCarty, Kathleen M
Navas-Acien, Ana
author_facet Agbenyikey, Wilfred
Wellington, Edith
Gyapong, John
Travers, Mark J
Breysse, Patrick N
McCarty, Kathleen M
Navas-Acien, Ana
author_sort Agbenyikey, Wilfred
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure is a global public health problem. Ghana currently has no legislation to prevent smoking in public places. To provide data on SHS levels in hospitality venues in Ghana the authors measured (1) airborne particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) and nicotine concentrations and (2) hair nicotine concentrations in non-smoking employees. Quantifying SHS exposure will provide evidence needed to develop tobacco control legislation. METHOD: PM(2.5) was measured for 30 min in 75 smoking and 13 non-smoking venues. Air nicotine concentrations were measured for 7 days in 8 smoking and 2 non-smoking venues. Additionally, 63 non-smoking employees provided hair samples for nicotine analysis. RESULT: Compared to non-smoking venues, smoking venues had markedly elevated PM(2.5) (median 553 [IQR 259–1038] vs 16.0 [14.0–17.0] μg/m(3)) and air nicotine (1.83 [0.91–4.25] vs 0.03 [0.02–0.04] μg/m(3)) concentrations. Hair nicotine concentrations were also higher in non-smoking employees working in smoking venues (median 2.49 [0.46–6.84] ng/mg) compared to those working in non-smoking venues (median 0.16 [0.08–0.79] ng/mg). Hair nicotine concentrations correlated with self-reported hours of SHS exposure (r=0.35), indoor air PM(2.5) concentrations (r=0.47) and air nicotine concentrations (r=0.63). CONCLUSION: SHS levels were unacceptably high in public places in Ghana where smoking is allowed, despite a relatively low-smoking prevalence in the country. This is one of the first studies to ascertain SHS and hair nicotine in Africa. Levels were comparable to those measured in American, Asian and European countries without or before smoking bans. Implementing a comprehensive smoke-free legislation that protects workers and customers from exposure to secondhand smoke is urgently needed in Ghana.
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spelling pubmed-30455262011-03-10 Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana Agbenyikey, Wilfred Wellington, Edith Gyapong, John Travers, Mark J Breysse, Patrick N McCarty, Kathleen M Navas-Acien, Ana Tob Control Research Paper BACKGROUND: Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure is a global public health problem. Ghana currently has no legislation to prevent smoking in public places. To provide data on SHS levels in hospitality venues in Ghana the authors measured (1) airborne particulate matter <2.5 μm (PM(2.5)) and nicotine concentrations and (2) hair nicotine concentrations in non-smoking employees. Quantifying SHS exposure will provide evidence needed to develop tobacco control legislation. METHOD: PM(2.5) was measured for 30 min in 75 smoking and 13 non-smoking venues. Air nicotine concentrations were measured for 7 days in 8 smoking and 2 non-smoking venues. Additionally, 63 non-smoking employees provided hair samples for nicotine analysis. RESULT: Compared to non-smoking venues, smoking venues had markedly elevated PM(2.5) (median 553 [IQR 259–1038] vs 16.0 [14.0–17.0] μg/m(3)) and air nicotine (1.83 [0.91–4.25] vs 0.03 [0.02–0.04] μg/m(3)) concentrations. Hair nicotine concentrations were also higher in non-smoking employees working in smoking venues (median 2.49 [0.46–6.84] ng/mg) compared to those working in non-smoking venues (median 0.16 [0.08–0.79] ng/mg). Hair nicotine concentrations correlated with self-reported hours of SHS exposure (r=0.35), indoor air PM(2.5) concentrations (r=0.47) and air nicotine concentrations (r=0.63). CONCLUSION: SHS levels were unacceptably high in public places in Ghana where smoking is allowed, despite a relatively low-smoking prevalence in the country. This is one of the first studies to ascertain SHS and hair nicotine in Africa. Levels were comparable to those measured in American, Asian and European countries without or before smoking bans. Implementing a comprehensive smoke-free legislation that protects workers and customers from exposure to secondhand smoke is urgently needed in Ghana. BMJ Group 2010-10-07 2011-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3045526/ /pubmed/20930057 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.036012 Text en © 2011, Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/legalcode.
spellingShingle Research Paper
Agbenyikey, Wilfred
Wellington, Edith
Gyapong, John
Travers, Mark J
Breysse, Patrick N
McCarty, Kathleen M
Navas-Acien, Ana
Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana
title Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana
title_full Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana
title_fullStr Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana
title_short Secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (PM(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in Ghana
title_sort secondhand tobacco smoke exposure in selected public places (pm(2.5) and air nicotine) and non-smoking employees (hair nicotine) in ghana
topic Research Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3045526/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20930057
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.036012
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