Moments of the exit-time distribution for carboxyhemoglobin due to cigarette smoking

Abstract

Linear and non-linear secondary Poisson process models are developed for the level of carboxyhemoglobin in cigarette smoking. The moments of the time of first exit above a critical threshold are expanded as power series in the initial state of the process. Recurrence relations for the coefficients in the moment series are solved numerically. An explicit formula involving Poisson probability functions is obtained for the mean exit time of shot noise.