This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (18)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Occupational and Environmental Medicine  • Tobacco  • World Health  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ana Navas-Acien, MD, MPH; Armando Peruga, MD, DrPH; Patrick Breysse, PhD; Alfonso Zavaleta, MD; Adriana Blanco-Marquizo, MD; Raul Pitarque, MD; Marisol Acuña, MD; Katya Jiménez-Reyes, MD; Vera L. Colombo, MD; Graciela Gamarra, MD; Frances A. Stillman, EdD; Jonathan Samet, MD, MS

JAMA. 2004;291:2741-2745.

Context  The success of measures to restrict smoking in indoor environments and the intensity of enforcement vary among countries around the world. In 2001, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) launched the Smoke-Free Americas Initiative to build capacity to achieve smoke-free environments in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Objective  To assess secondhand smoke concentrations in public places in the capital cities of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay in conjunction with the Smoke-Free Americas Initiative.

Design and Setting  Multicountry assessment of vapor-phase nicotine concentrations using a common protocol in all 7 Latin American countries. A total of 633 sampling devices were placed for 7 to 14 days in 1 hospital, 2 secondary schools, 1 city government building, 1 airport (2 in Argentina), and restaurants and bars in each country.

Main Outcome Measure  Concentrations of airborne nicotine.

Results  Airborne nicotine was detected in most (94%) of the locations surveyed. By country, Argentina and Uruguay had the highest median concentrations in most environments (eg, in hospitals: 1.33 [interquartile range {IQR}, 0.51-3.12] µg/m³ and 0.8 [IQR, 0.30-1.69] µg/m³, respectively). Overall, bars and restaurants had the highest median concentrations (3.65 [IQR, 1.55-5.12] µg/m³ and 1.24 [IQR, 0.41-2.48] µg/m³, respectively). Nicotine concentrations were also found in a number of key, sentinel buildings, including 95% (155/163) of hospital samples (in the physicians' and nurses' stations the median was 0.27 [IQR, 0.02-1.94] µg/m³), schools, government buildings, and/or airports in most countries.

Conclusions  The finding of airborne nicotine in critical locations in Latin America provides a basis for enforcing smoke-free initiatives and for strengthening the protection of the public from unwanted exposure to secondhand smoke.

Author Affiliations: Institute for Global Tobacco Control and the Department of Epidemiology (Drs Navas-Acien, Stillman, and Samet) and Department of Environmental Health Sciences (Dr Breysse), Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Md; Pan American Health Organization, Washington, DC (Dr Peruga); Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Pharmacology, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and CEDRO, Lima, Perú (Dr Zavaleta); Intendencia Municipal, Montevideo, Uruguay (Dr Blanco-Marquizo); Ministry of Health at the moment of the study, presently, UATA, Buenos Aires, Argentina (Dr Pitarque); Tobacco Unit, Ministry of Health, Santiago, Chile (Dr Acuña); IAFA, San Jose, Costa Rica (Dr Jiménez-Reyes); INCA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Dr Colombo); Tobacco Unit, Ministry of Health, Asunción, Paraguay (Dr Gamarra).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Second-hand smoke exposure in a sample of European hospitals
Fernandez et al.
Eur Respir J 2009;34:111-116.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Public Places in Guatemala: Comparison with other Latin American Countries
Barnoya et al.
Cancer Epidemiol. Biomarkers Prev. 2007;16:2730-2735.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

"Accommodating" smoke-free policies: tobacco industry's Courtesy of Choice programme in Latin America
Sebrie and Glantz
Tobacco Control 2007;16:e6-e6.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Second-hand tobacco smoke in public places in urban and rural China
Stillman et al.
Tobacco Control 2007;16:229-234.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Building capacity for tobacco control research and policy
Stillman et al.
Tobacco Control 2006;15:i18-i23.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Tobacco industry successfully prevented tobacco control legislation in Argentina
Sebrie et al.
Tobacco Control 2005;14:e2-e2.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Achieving the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control's potential by investing in national capacity
Wipfli et al.
Tobacco Control 2004;13:433-437.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT