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Contamination of surfaces in children’s homes with nicotine and the potent carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamine NNK

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Tobacco smoke exposure (TSE) through secondhand and thirdhand smoke is a modifiable risk factor that contributes to childhood morbidity. Limited research has assessed surface TSE pollution in children’s environments as a potential source of thirdhand smoke exposure, and none have examined levels of the tobacco-specific nitrosamine 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) on surfaces.

Objective

This study measured surface NNK and nicotine in children’s homes and associations with sociodemographics and parent-reported TSE behaviors. We assessed correlations of surface NNK and nicotine with dust NNK, dust nicotine, and child cotinine.

Methods

Home surface wipe NNK and nicotine data from 84 children who lived with smokers were analyzed. Tobit and simple linear regression analyses were conducted to assess associations of surface NNK and nicotine with child characteristics. Spearman’s (ρ) correlations assessed the strength of associations between environmental markers and child cotinine.

Results

Nearly half (48.8%) of children’s home surfaces had detectable NNK and 100% had detectable nicotine. The respective geometric means (GMs) of surface NNK and nicotine loadings were 14.0 ng/m2 and 16.4 µg/m2. Surface NNK positively correlated with surface nicotine (ρ = 0.54, p < 0.001) and dust NNK (ρ = 0.30, p = 0.020). Surface nicotine positively correlated with dust NNK (ρ = 0.42, p < 0.001) and dust nicotine (ρ = 0.24, p = 0.041). Children with household incomes ≤$15,000 had higher surface NNK levels (GM = 18.7 ng/m2, p = 0.017) compared to children with household incomes >$15,000 (GM = 7.1 ng/m2). Children with no home smoking bans had higher surface NNK (GM = 18.1 ng/m2, p = 0.020) and surface nicotine (GM = 17.7 µg/m2, p = 0.019) levels compared to children with smoking bans (GM = 7.5 ng/m2, 4.8 µg/m2, respectively).

Impact

Although nicotine on surfaces is an established marker of thirdhand smoke pollution, other thirdhand smoke contaminants have not been measured on surfaces in the homes of children living with smokers. We provide evidence that the potent carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamine NNK was detectable on surfaces in nearly half of children’s homes, and nicotine was detectable on all surfaces. Surface NNK was positively correlated with surface nicotine and dust NNK. Detectable surface NNK levels were found in homes with indoor smoking bans, indicating the role of NNK as a persistent thirdhand smoke pollutant accumulating on surfaces as well as in dust.

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Fig. 1: Heatmap for Spearman’s correlations between surface NNK loading (ng/m2), surface nicotine loading (µg/m2), dust NNK loading (ng/m2), dust nicotine loading (µg/m2), and child urinary cotinine (ng/ml).

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Data availability

Data cannot be shared publicly because of potentially identifying patient information. Data are available from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (contact Dr. Melinda Mahabee-Gittens via melinda.mahabee-gittens@cchmc.org) for researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Linda Chu, Kaylen Wilson, and Mansi Vyas of San Diego State University for their assistance with environmental sample analysis.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH Grant Number K01DA044313), Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH Grant Number R01HD083354), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH Grant Number R01ES027815, R01ES030743, and R21ES032161). Instrumentation and other analytical chemistry laboratory resources for the urine analyses at the University of California at San Francisco were supported by the National Institutes of Health (P30DA012393 and S10RR026437). This work was also supported by the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP Grant Numbers 28PT-0078 and 28PT-0079).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cincinnati, School of Human Services, PO Box 210068, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0068, USA

    Ashley L. Merianos

  2. Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182-4611, USA

    Georg E. Matt

  3. Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, 160 Panzeca Way, Cincinnati, OH, 45267-0056, USA

    Timothy M. Stone & Roman A. Jandarov

  4. San Diego State University, School of Public Health, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA, 92182-4162, USA

    Eunha Hoh, Nathan G. Dodder, Penelope J. E. Quintana & Nicolas Lopez-Galvez

  5. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, 3333 Burnet Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, 45229-3026, USA

    Lara Stone & E. Melinda Mahabee-Gittens

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Contributions

Concept and design: ALM, GEM, TMS, RAJ, EH, NGD, PJEQ, NLG, LS, EMMG. Acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data: ALM, GEM, TMS, RAJ, EH, NGD, PJEQ, NLG, LS, EMMG. Statistical analysis: ALM, GEM, TMS, RAJ. Drafting of manuscript: ALM. Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: GEM, TMS, RAJ, EH, NGD, PJEQ, NLG, LS, EMMG. Final approval of the version to be published: ALM, GEM, TMS, RAJ, EH, NGD, PJEQ, NLG, LS, EMMG.

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Correspondence to Ashley L. Merianos.

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All protocols relating to human subjects involved in the study were reviewed and approved by the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board (#2017-5157).

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Merianos, A.L., Matt, G.E., Stone, T.M. et al. Contamination of surfaces in children’s homes with nicotine and the potent carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamine NNK. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-023-00629-8

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