Carbon monoxide in exhaled air of students in Tehran

Abstract

Background and aimsCarbon monoxide poisoning is a major cause of mortality due to gasinhalation. It is more prevalent in winter, because of poor indoor ventilation. The purpose of ourstudy was to evaluate exhaled carbon monoxide of students and to estimate their exposure to this gas.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was performed in winter 2008. The exhaled carbonmonoxide level of 184 students was assessed by breath analyzer. Questionnaire data werecollected to assess smoking habit, types of domestic exposures and symptoms of carbon monoxide  intoxication.ResultsStudents consists of 79 boys and 105 girls. Number of cases in carbon monoxide levelsof 0-6 ppm, 7-10ppm, 11-20ppm and above 20ppm were consecutively 150(81.52%),23(12.50%), 10(5.43%) and 1(0.54%). The difference of symptoms in different groups was not  significant.ConclusionDue to our results, 34(18.47%) cases of healthy nonsmoker students had abnormalexhaled carbon monoxide level of more than 1-3 ppm which could be attributed to environmentalexposures. 11(5.97%) cases had carbon monoxide exhaled level of more than 11ppm whichexceeds the permissible exposure limits. More attention should be paid to the sources of carbonmonoxide exposure in children, in order to minimize morbidity and mortality related to carbonmonoxide intoxication