Urinary Biomarkers of Exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study Wave 1 (2013-2014).

Víctor R De Jesús,Deepak Bhandari,Joanne T Chang,Denise Tevis,Andrew Hyland,Heather L Kimmel,Luyu Zhang,Christopher Reese,Kimberly Capella,Dana Van Bemmel,Guy Lagaud,Arseima Y Del Valle-Pinero,Eva Sharma,Wanzhe Zhu,Benjamin C Blount,Maciej L Goniewicz

doi:10.3390/ijerph17155408

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous in the environment. In the United States (U.S.), tobacco smoke is the major non-occupational source of exposure to many harmful VOCs. Exposure to VOCs can be assessed by measuring their urinary metabolites (VOCMs). The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study is a U.S. national longitudinal study of tobacco use in the adult and youth civilian non-institutionalized population. We measured 20 VOCMs in urine specimens from a subsample of adults in Wave 1 (W1) (2013–2014) to characterize VOC exposures among tobacco product users and non-users. We calculated weighted geometric means (GMs) and percentiles of each VOCM for exclusive combustible product users (smokers), exclusive electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) users, exclusive smokeless product users, and tobacco product never users. We produced linear regression models for six VOCMs with sex, age, race, and tobacco user group as predictor variables. Creatinine-ratioed levels of VOCMs from exposure to acrolein, crotonaldehyde, isoprene, acrylonitrile, and 1,3-butadiene were significantly higher in smokers than in never users. Small differences of VOCM levels among exclusive e-cigarette users and smokeless users were observed when compared to never users. Smokers showed higher VOCM concentrations than e-cigarette, smokeless, and never users. Urinary VOC metabolites are useful biomarkers of exposure to harmful VOCs.

Highlights

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are ubiquitous in the environment
We investigated the effect of selected predictors on VOCM levels by tobacco user group
Overall detection frequencies for 10 VOCMs were >99%; the detection frequency was lowest for 1CYHEMA (35.98%; Table S1, Supplementary Materials)

Summary

Introduction

In the United States (U.S.), tobacco smoke is the major non-occupational source of exposure to many harmful VOCs [1]. Tobacco smoke contains over 8000 chemicals, including carcinogenic and toxic VOCs such as acrylonitrile and benzene [2]. Lower levels of VOCs have been reported in electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) refill solutions and emissions; e-cigarette use has increased significantly worldwide, especially among youth [3,4]. Regardless of exposure source, high levels of harmful VOCs are a significant public health concern. Previous epidemiologic studies have suggested respiratory effects of VOC exposure (e.g., asthma exacerbation, lung cancer) [5,6,7]. Controlled human exposure studies have suggested the inflammatory effects of VOCs (i.e., dose-related increases in lower and upper respiratory symptoms) [8,9]

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