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

Introduction:
This text reports an original investigation on the use of silicone wristbands (WB) as a method for assessing exposure to tobacco-related contaminants in children. The study aims to differentiate between 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). The study also examines the performance of WB in comparison to air monitors and urinary cotinine (UC).

Key Points:

* The study found that nicotine and cotinine levels in WB can distinguish between groups of children recruited into NS, EC exposed, and CC exposed groups in a similar manner to UC.
* TSNas, including the known carcinogen NNK, were detected in 39% of WB.
* WB levels were significantly higher in the CC group than the EC group, and both CC and EC group levels were higher than the NS group.
* Both 2- and 7-day WB nicotine and cotinine levels were highly correlated with levels expressed as ng/WB.
* air nicotine concentrations were measured using passive air monitors, and 36% of air samples had detectable levels of nicotine.
* The study detected TSNas in 39% of silicone WB, mostly in children exposed to CC.
* The correlation between urinary cotinine and WB nicotine was stronger than reported from other silicone WB studies.

Main Message:
The study suggests that silicone WB show promise for sensitive detection of exposure to tobacco-related contaminants from traditional and electronic cigarettes. The 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, making them potentially useful for tobacco control activities such as parental awareness and behavior change, and effects of smoke-free policy implementation.

quintana PJE, Lopez-Galvez N, Dodder NG, et al. Nicotine, Cotinine, and Tobacco-Specific Nitrosamines Measured in Children’s Silicone Wristbands in Relation to Secondhand Smoke and E-cigarette Vapor Exposure. Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. 2021;23(3):592-599. doi:10.1093/ntr/ntaa140