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, Luyu Zhang, Christopher Reese, Kimberly M. Capella, Denise S. Tevis, Wanzhe Zhu, Arseima Y. Del Valle-Pinero, Guy Lagaud, Joanne T. Chang, Dana van Bemmel, Heather L. Kimmel, Eva Sharma, Maciej Ł. Goniewicz, Andrew Hyland, Benjamin C. Blount
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.