1. ^aClinical Biochemistry Dept. Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy
2. ^bPharmacological Research Unit, Institut Municipal d' Investigació Mèdica, Barcelona, Spain
3. ^cPaediatric Service, Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, Spain
4. ^dRespiratory and Environmental Research Unit, Institut Municipal d' Investigació Mèdica, Barcelona, Spain
5. ^eUniversitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain

Correspondence: Dr. Jordi Sunyer, Respiratory and Environmental Research Unit, Institut Municipal d' Investigació Mèdica (IMIM), Doctor Aiguader 80, E-08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Tel.: +34-93-2211009. Fax: 34-93-2213237. E-mail: jsunyer@imim.es

Received 24 May 2002.

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the association between biomarkers of fetal exposure to smoking during the whole pregnancy, nicotine in maternal and newborns hair samples, and quantitative measurement of smoking intake and exposure evaluated by maternal self-reported questionnaire. Study subjects were 150 mothers and their newborns from a hospital in Barcelona. A questionnaire including smoking habits was completed in the third trimester of pregnancy and on the day of delivery. Nicotine content was measured in two subsequent segments of maternal hair accounting for the first and last months of pregnancy, and in fetal hair. The geometric mean of nicotine concentration in maternal hair discriminated between nonexposition (3.84 and 2.80 ng/mg in distal and proximal hair segment, respectively) and exposition to cigarette smoke during pregnancy (6.06 and 4.30 ng/mg in distal and proximal hair segment, respectively) (P<0.05), and between these two classes and active smoking (14.40 and 11.08 ng/mg in distal and proximal hair segment, respectively). Maternal hair nicotine was able to differentiate levels of exposure to tobacco smoke and levels of intake. Nicotine concentration in hair from newborns did not differentiate between exposure and nonexposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in nonsmoking mothers. Finally, chronic exposure to cigarette smoke during pregnancy, assessed by maternal hair nicotine, correlated negatively with anthropometric parameters of newborns.