Abstract
We model nicotine from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) in office air and salivary cotinine in nonsmoking U.S. workers. We estimate that: an average salivary cotinine level of 0.4 ng/ml corresponds to an increased lifetime mortality risk of 1/1000 for lung cancer, and 1/100 for heart disease; > 95% of ETS-exposed office workers exceed OSHA's significant risk level for heart disease mortality, and 60% exceed significant risk for lung cancer mortality; 4000 heart disease deaths and 400 lung cancer deaths occur annually among office workers from passive smoking in the workplace, at the current 28% prevalence of unrestricted smoking in the office workplace.
MeSH terms
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Air Pollutants, Occupational / analysis*
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Cotinine / adverse effects
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Cotinine / analysis*
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Cotinine / metabolism
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Heart Diseases / epidemiology
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Heart Diseases / etiology
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Heart Diseases / mortality
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Humans
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Lung Neoplasms / epidemiology
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Lung Neoplasms / etiology
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Lung Neoplasms / mortality
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Models, Biological
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Monte Carlo Method
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Nicotine / adverse effects
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Nicotine / analysis*
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Nicotine / metabolism
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Occupational Diseases / epidemiology
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Occupational Diseases / etiology
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Occupational Diseases / mortality
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Occupational Exposure
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Risk Assessment
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Saliva / chemistry*
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Tobacco Smoke Pollution / analysis*
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United States / epidemiology
Substances
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Air Pollutants, Occupational
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Tobacco Smoke Pollution
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Nicotine
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Cotinine