Passive Environmental Exposure to Cocaine in Canadian Children

Abstract

Hair testing is commonly used to confirm potential drug exposure in children living with drug users, as well as abstinence in their caregivers. To examine differences across pediatric age groups in the relationship between caregiver use of cocaine and cocaine exposure in children. We determined concentrations of cocaine and its metabolite, benzoylecgonine, in the hair of 19 child-caregiver pairs to estimate the pattern of exposure of the children according to age; concentrations in the caregivers' hair were used as a surrogate marker for the intensity of environmental exposure. Cocaine and benzoylecgonine concentrations in hair were determined by immunoassay. A significant correlation was observed between cocaine concentrations in the hair of infants and their caregivers (Spearman rho = 0.87; p = 0.005; n = 8), and the absence of a correlation in older children. These results suggest that environmental exposure plays an important role in the accumulation of cocaine in the hair of infants. Measurement of cocaine hair concentrations can allow estimation of the degree of environmental drug exposure in young children. Infants seem to have a disproportionately increased risk for systemic exposure, compared with older children.