A Tobacco-Specific Lung Carcinogen in the Urine of Men Exposed to Cigarette Smoke

Stephen S. Hecht, Steven G. Carmella, Sharon E. Murphy, Shobha Akerkar, Klaus D. Brunnemann, Dietrich Hoffmann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

190 Scopus citations

Abstract

Environmental tobacco smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a carcinogen causally associated with lung cancer in adults, but there have been no reports of lung carcinogens or their metabolites in the body fluids or tissues of nonsmokers exposed to environmental tobacco smoke. Five male nonsmokers were exposed to sidestream cigarette smoke generated by machine smoking of reference cigarettes for 180 minutes on each of two days, six months apart. Sidestream smoke is the smoke that originates from the smoldering end of a cigarette between puffs. Twenty-four-hour urine samples were collected before and after exposure. The urine samples were analyzed for 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) and its glucuronide, which are metabolites of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK), a powerful lung carcinogen in rodents. NNAL is also a lung carcinogen in rodents. The urinary excretion of the metabolites increased after exposure to sidestream smoke in all the men. The mean (±SD) amount of NNAL and NNAL glucuronide was significantly higher after exposure than at base line (33.9 ±20.0 vs. 8.4 ±11.2 ng per 24 hours [127 ±74 vs. 31 ±41 pmol per day], P<0.001) and was correlated with urinary cotinine excretion (r = 0.89, P<0.001). The nicotine concentrations in the air to which the men were exposed were comparable to those in a heavily smoke-polluted bar. Nonsmokers exposed to sidestream cigarette smoke take up and metabolize a lung carcinogen, which provides experimental support for the proposal that environmental tobacco smoke can cause lung cancer., Environmental tobacco smoke has been classified by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a human carcinogen. A recent report1 concluded: “Passive smoking is causally associated with lung cancer in adults, and environmental tobacco smoke, by the total weight of evidence, belongs in the category of compounds classified by the EPA as Group A (known human) carcinogens.” This evaluation was based in part on dose-response relations between the exposure of spouses to environmental tobacco smoke and the development of lung cancer, especially pulmonary adenocarcinoma2. There have been numerous studies of noncarcinogenic tobacco constituents such as nicotine and cotinine in the…

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1543-1546
Number of pages4
JournalNew England Journal of Medicine
Volume329
Issue number21
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 18 1993
Externally publishedYes

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