Blood Cadmium Concentration According to Exposure of Smoking in Adolescence

일부 청소년들에서 흡연노출량에 따른 혈중 카드뮴 농도

Objectives: We surveyed the prevalence of smoking among the adolescent population and analysed the correlation of the two exposure biomarkers-concentration of blood cadmium and urinary cotinine-to the smoking status. Methods: Subjects were 193 middle and high school students in Chungnam province. Blood cadmium and urinary cotinine were compared by sex and smoking status. Smoking status were classified by either the concentration of urinary cotinine or subjective answering as a smoker in the questionnaire. Results: Smoking prevalence was 24.6%, 36.2% and 6.7% among all subjects, male and female subjects, respectively. Average smoking amount was 17.5 and 1.5 cigarettes per month among the male subjects and female subjects, respectively. Mean concentration of urinary cotinine among the male subjects was $135.57{\mu}g/{\ell}$, and that of female subjects was $116.59{\mu}g/$. Direct smokers showed higher concentration of urinary cotinine than those of indirect smokers, and subjects with higher urinary concentration showed higher prevalence of smoking, too. Mean concentration of blood cadmium was $0.0572{\mu}g/d{\ell}$ among the male subjects, and $0.0693{\mu}g/d{\ell}$ among the female subjects. Among the male subjects, both exposure biomarkers showed significant correlation to the smoking status, but among the female subjects urinary cotinine did not show significant correlation to the smoking status. Conclusion: Concentrations of these two biomarkers suggested that this population had significantly high evironmental tobacco smoking(ETS) and efficient stop-smoking programs to reduce ETS should be directed to this population.