V.K. BHATNAGAR, P.K. KULKARNI AND S.K. GHOSH
Abstract
A total of 46 subjects belonging to two groups, control i.e. non-smoker (n=10) and passive smokers (n=36) were included in this study. All the passive smokers were women â either smoker's wives (n=25) or their daughters (n=11). They lived in small ill ventilated rooms and all were resident of slums at the eastern part of Ahmedabad city. The "cotinine, a major metabolite of nicotine was found significantly higher in the passive smokers â wives (4.31 ± 0.1) and daughters (0.51 ± 0.09) while in control group which comprised of male subjects showed no trace of nicotine in their 12 hour urine sample. The excretion rate of cotinine was expressed as mmole/mole of creatinine. It was observed that wives had at least eight times higher cotinine excretion rate than their daughters. Since wives spent more time indoor than their daughters, the excretion rate is significantly higher (p<0.005). This may be the attributable factor for higher rate of cotinine excretion among the wives.