Objective: To examine environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure according to occupation. Methods: We analyzed data from NHANES III (1988-1994), a nationally representative cross-sectional survey including questionnaire information and measurements of serum cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine. The analysis was restricted to 5267 adults who had been employed in the two weeks prior to the survey, were not current smokers, and reported no home exposure to cigarette smoke. Occupations were grouped into 40 groups, and 7 broad categories based on the 1980 standard census categories. Results: The geometric mean serum cotinine was 0.13 ng/ml (95%CI 0.09-0.17) for farming /forestry/fishing occupations, 0.15 ng/ml (0.13-0.17) for managerial and professional specialty occupations, 0.16 ng/ml (0.14-0.18) for technical/administrative occupations, 0.21 ng/ml (0.17-0.25) for sales occupations, 0.24 ng/ml (0.20-0.29) for service occupations, 0.27 ng/ml (0.21-0.33) for precision production, craft, and repair occupations, and 0.29 ng/ml (0.24-0.33) for operators/fabricators/laborers. The proportion with serum cotinine >0.10 ng/ml was 47.0%, 57.6%, 61.9%, 67.9%, 68.4%, 76.5%, and 79.4% for these categories, respectively. Among the 40 job categories, the geometric mean serum cotinine ranged from 0.10 to 0.62, with a median of 0.19. The highest values were observed in waiters and waitresses:0.62 ( 0.38-0.86) and laborers, except construction: 0.51 (0.40-0.63). Conclusions: Exposure is higher in service and blue collar occupations than in white collar occupations, consistent with what would be expected based on prevalence of restrictive workplace policies by occupation, and based on smoking rates by occupation. Waiters experienced especially high levels of exposure to ETS.
Learning Objectives: N/A
Keywords: Environmental Exposures, Tobacco Control
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.