 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Ana Navas-Acien, MD, MPH, Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 North Wolfe Street, Room W 6027, Baltimore, MD 21205, 410 614-5378, fstillma@jhsph.edu
Secondhand smoke (SHS) is an involuntary exposure that poses serious health risk to passive smokers. In Latin America, there is insufficient information regarding range of exposure and locations where passive smoking is taking place. The objective of this project is to develop a surveillance method for assessing SHS in public places in Latin American countries in order to support smoke-free policies and programs to reduce passive smoking in the region. Exposure in hospitals, schools, local government buildings, the international airport, and restaurant/bars of seven countries was estimated by passive sampling of vapor-phase nicotine using 120 filter badges per country. All the countries used similar protocols and a training workshop was held previously to the fieldwork to favor comparability. After removal, the airborne concentration of nicotine in µg/m3 was measured by gas chromatography. Mean values and percentiles were used to describe the results in each country. Important variation was observed among the different countries in the overall levels, as well in levels by type of institution. These differences were related to differences in legislation, as well as the level of compliance with existing legislation. The situation was of special concern in hospitals and schools in certain countries. This surveillance study points out some priorities of action and the information obtained will serve to strengthen and orient interventions to protect the population from the health risks of SHS, and to evaluate trends in SHS exposure as they relate to clean indoor air policies in the region.
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
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.