Tobacco industries pollutants

Large amounts of thioq anate are generated in people with a high intake of cyanide from tobacco smoking, from cyanide in food, or from industrial pollution of the environment with cyanide. Thiocyanate may also be directly consumed with certain foods. Thiocyanate is a competitive inhibitor of the sodium iodide symporter (NIS) at thiocyanate levels normally found in blood. Thereby, it worsens iodine deficiency by inhibition of thyroidal iodide accumulation and by inhibition of iodide transport into breast milk for infant nutrition. Cessation of smoking, reduction of industrial pollution and improved diet will reduce the role of thiocyanate in thyroid disease. In individuals exposed to high levels of thiocyanate, adverse effects may be prevented by an increase in iodine intake. 

Thiocyanate in blood may originate from tobacco smoking, from industrial pollution of environment or from ingestin of certain foods. ... 

Environmental chemicals and pollutants are also capable of inducing P450 enzymes. As previously noted, exposure to benzo[a]pyrene and other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are present in tobacco smoke, charcoal-broiled meat, and other organic pyrolysis products, is known to induce CYP1A enzymes and to alter the rates of drug metabolism. Other environmental chemicals known to induce specific P450s include the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were once used widely in industry as insulating materials and plasticizers, and 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (dioxin, TCDD), a trace byproduct of the chemical synthesis of the defoliant 2,4,5-T (see Chapter 56). 

Nitrosamines are toxic compounds as well as potent animal and human carcinogens (Patnaik, 1992). These substances occur in trace quantities in tobacco smoke, meat products, and salted fish. Some of these compounds are classified by U.S. EPA as priority pollutants in industrial wastewaters, potable waters, and hazardous wastes. These nitrosamines are listed in Table 2.16.1. Such pollutants occurring in environmental samples can be determined by U.S. EPA s analytical procedures (U.S. EPA 1990, 1992). 

You could be exposed to acrolein in many other ways that have nothing to do with hazardous waste sites. Acrolein can be formed by the breakdown of many pollutants found in outdoor air. Burning tobacco and other plants forms acrolein, and you breathe acrolein when you smoke tobacco or are near someone who is smoking. You also breathe acrolein when you are near automobiles, because burning gasoline forms acrolein, which enters the air. If you live near an oil or coal power plant, you breathe small amounts of acrolein. Acrolein is formed when fats are heated. Small amounts of acrolein may also be found in foods such as fried foods, cooking oils, and roasted coffee. You could breathe acrolein if you work in an industry that uses acrolein to make other chemicals. 

Immunotoxic chemicals can interfere with the body s ability to ward off disease, can induce and exacerbate allergic responses, and contribute to autoimmune diseases. The complexity of the immune system and its interaction with other body systems makes it particularly vulnerable to attack by xenobiotics. Studies that have been carried out, however, have demonstrated that a wide variety of chemicals are immunotoxic and that chemical mixtures such as those contained in air polluted with the products of combustion, industrial emissions, and tobacco smoke is immunotoxic. Such polluted air can induce immunostimulative responses and bring on allergic reactions in previously sensitized individuals. 

It should be noted that workers exposed to benzene by dermal contact also may inhale vapors and thus receive a dual exposure. The air in many polluted areas often contains significant benzene levels as a result of the combustion of petroleum fuels. The ambient air over Los Angeles, California, in the decade 1990-2000, for example, typically contained greater than 1.0 ppm benzene.I18 Tobacco smokers and those exposed to secondhand (or environmental) smoke are further exposed to benzene. It is reasonable to anticipate that benzene-containing solvents will be used in urban and industrial areas where the air is polluted with benzene and that smokers will be among those who use such solvents. Such conditions further dictate the need for lowering the allowable benzene concentration in solvents. 

Like zinc, cadmium is used to electroplate steel to protect it from corrosion. However, because cadmium is rare, it is more expensive and so it is used less often than zinc. This metal can also cause health problems in humans, including high blood pressure and kidney failure. Small amounts of cadmium are present in tobacco leaves, exposing cigarette smokers to dangerous levels of this metal. Another disadvantage is that waste from electroplating industries that use cadmium has polluted lakes and other water sources. 

I have considered lead pollution in detail, but lead is not the only villain in the prenatal environment. Others include methyl-mercury polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) dioxins pesticides ionizing radiation and maternal use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and cocaine. These villains can cause a range of behavioral effects from severe mental retardation and disability to subtle changes in mental function that depend on the timing and dose of the chemical agent. Indeed, more than zoo industrial... 

Air can be polluted by BTEX by combustion of fuels in industrial emissions, vehicle motors, or even by tobacco smoke, and by evaporation from polluted surface water or fuels in gas stations. Analysis of BTEX in air is of special importance because their concentration in urban locations is increasing significantly through human activity. 

Serum concentrations of thiocyanate are two to three times higher in smokers than in nonsmokers. In populations not exposed to excessive amounts of thiocyanate from diet or industrial environmental pollution, thiocyanate concentrations in serum can be used to identify and quantify tobacco smoking (Scherer, 2006 Butts etal., 1974). Because of the variability in cyanide generation from smoking a cigarette, the correlation between serum (or urine) concentration of thiocyanate and the number of cigarettes smoked per day is rather low (Foss and Lund-Larsen, 1986). 

Polynuclear aromatics are hydrocarbons containing more than one fused benzenoid ring. These substances primarily occur in coal, coal tar, heavy oil, diesel fnel and many petroleum products. They are also found in soils, sediments, solid wastes, many wastewaters, emission from indnstrial boilers and tobacco smoke at trace concentrations. In the PAH class, U.S. EPA has hsted 16 compounds as priority pollutants in potable water and wastewater and 22 componnds in soil and solid wastes. Except naphthalene most PAH compounds have little commercial applications. However, they may be generated from various sources or industrial operations the exposure to which may pose risk to human health. Many PAHs may cause cancers, affecting a variety of tissues. However, only benzo[a]pyrene is a potent human carcinogen, while naphthalene, benzo[a]anthracene. 

A comprehensive list of organic compounds detected in both natural and polluted atmospheres has been compiled by Graedel (1978). The book consists principally of tables, listing more than 1,600 identified compounds by structural class, concentration, and atmospheric lifetime, if known. The tables include substances found in tobacco smoke, forest fires, volcanic eruptions, and industrial emissions. 

Benzo(a)pyrene A potent mutagen and carcinogen. It is a pubHc health concern because of its possible effects on industrial workers, as an enviroranental pollutant, an as a component of tobacco smoke. [NIH]... 

Several factors are affecting asthma including environmental and individual factors. There is seasonal variability in asthma in autumn, it is increased, while in summer, it is minimum in the United States (Silverman et ah, 2003). The reasons for these variations include increased exposure to allergens such as pollen, house dust mites, and mould spores among yoimger generation and in adults it may be increased influenza or other respiratory tract infections (Riccioni et ah, 2001). Moreover, cigarette smoke is one of the most common asthmatic reasons. Both indoor and outdoor air pollutants may also increase asthma. Inhalation of toxic vapors from industrial fumes, bleach sulfur, or smoke from fire or tobacco may also affect asthma (Just et ah, 2002). 

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