Passive smoking at work: the short-term cost

STUDY OBJECTIVE—To estimate the impact of passive smoking at work on use of health care services and absenteeism.
DESIGN—Cross sectional survey.
SETTING—A workforce in Hong Kong.
PARTICIPANTS—5142 never-smoking police officers in a total sample of 9926.
MAIN RESULTS—A consistently strong association was found among men between length of time exposed to passive smoking at work and self reported consultations with a doctor, use of medicines and time off work. Results for women were similar but most were not statistically significant.
CONCLUSIONS—The exposure of healthy adults to passive smoking at work is related to utilisation of health care services and extra time off work. This results in costs to the health services, to employers and to those exposed.


Keywords: passive smoking; absenteeis

DETERMINATION OF C-60/C-70 RATIOS IN FULLERENE MIXTURES AND FILM CHARACTERIZATION BY SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY

LANG HP, THOMMENGEISER V, BOLM C, et al. DETERMINATION OF C-60/C-70 RATIOS IN FULLERENE MIXTURES AND FILM CHARACTERIZATION BY SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY. Applied Physics A. 1993;56(3):197-205.Fullerene powder mixtures with different C60/C70 ratios have been analyzed by a variety of techniques, and results have been compared. The fullerene mixtures have been characterized as solutions in n-hexane by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Thin films of fullerenes on Au(111) have been prepared from the mixtures by sublimation. The sublimation process has been studied by simultaneous thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses. Thin fullerene films on Au(111) have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The STM images show primarily two types of ball-shaped molecules arranged in a lattice with hexagonal symmetry (fcc(111) face, nearest neighbour distance: 1 nm). The two species differ in diameter. STM images of films made of mixtures of different C60/C70 ratios show that C70 molecules display a larger apparent diameter (0.8 nm) and corrugation than C60 molecules (0.7 nm). The C60/C70 ratios obtained by counting the corresponding molecular species in the STM images of the thin films are compared to the C60/C70 ratios determined by HPLC on hexane solutions of the mixtures. The observed differences might be explained by different rates of sublimation for the two species. The STM images reveal film defects (vacancies and boundaries) and dynamic processes (displacement of C70 molecules and vacancies). In films prepared to have a C60 coverage of less than one monolayer, stable structural units of the C60(111) surface consisting of three or seven C60 molecules are revealed by STM. Occasionally, substructure within individual fullerene molecules is observed

Allylmercapturic acid as urinary biomarker of human exposure to allyl chloride.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use of urinary mercapturic acids as a biomarker of human exposure to allyl chloride (3-chloropropene) (AC). During three regular shut down periods in a production factory for AC, both types of variables were measured in 136 workers involved in maintenance operations. METHODS: Potential airborne exposure to AC was measured by personal air monitoring in the breathing zone. In total 205 workshifts were evaluated. During 99 workshifts no respiratory protection equipment was used. Mercapturic acid metabolites were measured in urinary extracts by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). RESULTS: During 86 work shifts when no respiratory protection was used the air concentrations of AC were below the Dutch eight hour time weighted average (8 h-TWA) occupational exposure limit (OEL) of AC (3 mg/m3), whereas in 13 workshifts the potential exposure, as measured by personal air monitoring, exceeded the OEL (3.3 to 17 mg/m3). With the aid of GC-MS, 3-hydroxypropylmercapturic acid (HPMA) was identified as a minor and allylmercapturic acid (ALMA) as a major metabolite of AC in urine samples from the maintenance workers exposed to AC. The concentrations of ALMA excreted were in a range from < 25 micrograms/l (detection limit) to 3550 micrograms/l. The increases in urinary ALMA concentrations during the workshifts correlated well with the 8h-TWA air concentrations of AC (r = 0.816, P = 0.0001, n = 39). Based on this correlation, for AC a biological exposure index (BEI) of 352 micrograms ALMA/g creatinine during an eight hour workshift is proposed. In some urine samples unexpectedly high concentrations of ALMA were found. Some of these could definitely be attributed to dermal exposure to AC. In other cases garlic consumption was identified as a confounding factor. CONCLUSION: The mercapturic acid ALMA was identified in urine of workers occupationally exposed to airborne AC and the increase in ALMA concentrations in urine during a workshift correlated well with the 8 h-TWA exposure to AC. Garlic consumption, but not smoking, is a potential confounding factor for this biomarker of human exposure to AC