{"id":5428,"date":"2021-02-05T10:00:42","date_gmt":"2021-02-05T15:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nchstats.com\/?p=5428"},"modified":"2021-02-05T10:00:42","modified_gmt":"2021-02-05T15:00:42","slug":"podcast-secondhand-smoke-exposure-among-u-s-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/2021\/02\/05\/5428\/","title":{"rendered":"PODCAST: Secondhand Smoke Exposure among U.S. Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATCAST, FEBRUARY 2021: DISCUSSION WITH DEBRA BRODY, AN EPIDEMIOLOGIST WITH NHANES, ABOUT SECONDHAND SMOKE EXPOSURE AMONG ADULTS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/pressroom\/podcasts\/2021\/20210205\/20210205.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

TRANSCRIPT<\/strong><\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 Today we welcome Debra Brody, an epidemiologist with NCHS\u2019s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES.\u00a0 Debra has been studying trends and exposure to secondhand smoke in America and has just authored a new study focusing on secondhand smoke exposure among adults in the U.S.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 First off, what are some of the reasons why secondhand smoke is a public health threat and what did you set out to accomplish with this new study?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Well, I want to begin by defining secondhand smoke and that is the smoke that is breathed in involuntarily from the burning tobacco of smokers.\u00a0 And because it contains toxic chemicals, it has many of the same harmful health risks to non-smokers as tobacco smoke has to active smokers.\u00a0 And this would include increased risks of respiratory diseases, heart disease, stroke, and lung cancer.\u00a0 So the bottom line is that no amount of exposure to secondhand smoke is safe. And while we can not determine the exact source of exposure, our goal was to assess the current proportion of the non-smoking adult population in the U.S. who are exposed to the burning smoke of others.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 So how does NHANES measure secondhand smoke?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 So NHANES is a national survey that assesses the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the U.S., and the survey is unique in that it combines interviews with physical exams and laboratory testing. So as part of the laboratory component, we draw blood from our participants and measure cotinine levels.\u00a0 Cotinine is a metabolite of the chemical nicotine that\u2019s found in tobacco smoke.\u00a0 And cotinine provides a good measurement of the amount of nicotine a person has in his or her body due to tobacco inhalation.\u00a0 So persons who don\u2019t smoke should not have any cotinine in their system unless they breathe in smoke from other people\u2019s tobacco.\u00a0 In this report, secondhand smoke is based on having a certain level of cotinine in the blood, indicating current exposure to tobacco smoke.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 With the growth of E-cigarettes, is there a way to measure secondhand smoke with that?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s a good question.\u00a0 So we can\u2019t distinguish from the cotinine level the source of the tobacco product.\u00a0 So we don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s based on cigarette smoking or cigar, pipe, or hookas or possibly even from the vapor from E-cigarettes.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 I see.\u00a0 So how many folks participated in this study?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0 Our report focuses on data from non-smoking adults during the period of 2015 to 2018, and in this four-year period there were about 7,600 non-smoking adults who were 18 years and older who had blood drawn during the examination and answered questions about their smoking status and their current tobacco use.\u00a0 But I want to mention NHANES is a population-based survey and is nationally representative of all adults in the U.S.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 So what\u2019s the bottom line here?\u00a0 How prevalent is secondhand exposure in the adult population?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0 So we found that 20.8% or about one in five non-smoking adults 18 years and older were exposed to secondhand smoke.\u00a0 Overall, we found the percentage of secondhand smoke exposure was similar for men and women.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 So how has this changed over time?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0If we look back to when we first measured cotinine in the survey \u2013 and that was in the late 80\u2019s \u2013 and at that time close to 90% of all Americans were exposed to secondhand smoke.\u00a0 Now, in this report we examine the change in exposure prevalences over a 10-year period. So that would be since 2009-2010.\u00a0 Across the 10-year timeframe we observed a downward trend overall.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 So this isn\u2019t part of your study of course but you mentioned that when you originally started measuring this back in the late 80\u2019s, ninety percent of adults were exposed. I trust that what has happened is we\u2019ve seen the results since then of all the smoke-free establishments?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah that\u2019s really a good question.\u00a0 So exposure has steadily decreased in the U.S. obviously with increases in regulatory oversight concerning smoke-free indoor air quality.\u00a0 And then individual policies regarding smoking in homes and cars, and then declines in smoking, particularly cigarette smoking overall.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 So are your findings consistent with other studies on secondhand smoke?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0As I mentioned, NHANES is a national survey representing the U.S. population and has been measuring secondhand smoke exposure using a biomarker \u2013 that is cotinine \u2013 for more than 40 years.\u00a0 While there are some other surveys focused on tobacco smoke, there really isn\u2019t any other survey that has measured exposure like this among non-tobacco users over so many years.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 And what groups of people are more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We saw that exposure was disproportionately more prevalent among non-Hispanic blacks compared to non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic Asians, and Hispanic adults.\u00a0 There are other findings from this report that highlight what we might say is a \u201chealth equity\u201d concern as well.\u00a0 We found that the prevalence of secondhand smoke exposure increased with decreasing level of family income and that the percentage of exposure also increased with decreasing education levels.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 Now are children more likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke than adults? Do we know about that?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We did not include children for this short report but we have focused on youths in other reports.\u00a0 We do know the percentage of secondhand smoke exposure in children exceeds adult prevalences, and it may be because of the involuntary nature of exposure.\u00a0 Children may not be able to protect themselves from possible sources whereas adults can protect themselves and may be able to stay away from others who are smoking cigarettes or using other tobacco products.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 One more question:\u00a0 Are there plans for any pains to continue to track secondhand smoke exposure in the population?<\/p>\n

DEBRA BRODY:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 Our measurements of the cotinine levels will continue to be collected in future NHANES studies in order to track progress in reducing all secondhand smoke exposure.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 Our thanks to Debra Brody for joining us to discuss her new research on secondhand smoke exposure among American adults.\u00a0 The new report was released yesterday, on February 4th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

HOST:<\/strong>\u00a0 Today, there is another new report from NHANES \u2013 this one on fruit and vegetable consumption among American adults.\u00a0 The new report features 2015-2018 data, and shows that 2\/3 of adults age 20 and up consume fruit on a given day and over 9 in 10 consume vegetables.\u00a0 The study shows that more women consume fruit than men, whereas an equal percentage of women and men consume vegetables.\u00a0 Income level seems to play a key role here.\u00a0 As the level of income rises among adults, so does fruit and vegetable consumption.\u00a0 While vegetable consumption among adults has remained essentially unchanged over the past two decades, fruit consumption has decreased since 1999-2000, when over three quarters of adults consumed fruit on a given day.<\/p>\n

This has been another edition\u2026 of \u201cStatcast.\u201d\u00a0 Next week we\u2019ll be discussing the latest quarterly health indicators from the National Health Interview Survey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STATCAST, FEBRUARY 2021: DISCUSSION WITH DEBRA BRODY, AN EPIDEMIOLOGIST WITH NHANES, ABOUT SECONDHAND SMOKE EXPOSURE AMONG ADULTS. https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/pressroom\/podcasts\/2021\/20210205\/20210205.htm TRANSCRIPT HOST:\u00a0 Today we welcome Debra Brody, an epidemiologist with NCHS\u2019s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES.\u00a0 Debra has been studying trends and exposure to secondhand smoke in America and has just authored a new<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50899,63724,10541],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cdc.gov\/nchs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}