Factors Determining Exposure to Passive Smoking in Young Adults Living at Home: Quantitative Analysis Using Saliva Cotinine Concentrations

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Abstract
Saliva cotinine concentrations were used to examine determinants of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in 393 non-smoking students (age range 16–19 years) attending a sixth form college and living at home. Average concentrations were low (median 0.60 ng/ml), reflecting partly the warm weather at the time of the survey and partly the predominantly middle class sample. Despite this, cotinine levels were strongly related to the extent of self-reported passive smoking in the past three days (medians 0.30, 0.60, 0.90 and 1.35 ng/ml in those reporting ‘None at all’, ‘A little’, ‘Some’ and ‘A lot’ respectively, p<0.0001). Individual sources of environmental tobacco smoke identified were smoking by mothers (p<0.0001), by fathers (p<0.01), and exposure at college (p<0.001) and when out in the evenings (p<0.001). The results indicate that exposure outside the home may become of equal or greater importance than family smoking in determining the overall passive smoking dose received by this age group.

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