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Simultaneous Determination of Chromium, Cadmium, and Lead and Evaluation of the Correlation between Chromium and Cotinine in Chinese Smokers

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Abstract

Heavy metals in tobacco caused wide public concern. To study the impact of heavy metals in smokers, 193 smokers and 58 nonsmokers were surveyed, and their urinary levels of chromium (UCr), lead (UPb), and cadmium (UCd) were assayed. In this study, UCr, UPb, and UCd in smokers (33.41 ± 14.99, 3.21 ± 1.34, 0.38 ± 0.64 μg/24 h, respectively) and nonsmokers (27.45 ± 10.49, 3.02 ± 0.88, 0.20 ± 0.16 μg/24 h, respectively) were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The results showed that the content of UCr, UPb, and UCd in smokers were higher than in nonsmokers. Further analyses of correlations between the levels of urinary chromium and cotinine revealed positive relationship (correlation coefficient r = 0.51).

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (21347002, 21277174). The authors wish to thank Vice Professor Gao Na from Institute of Clinical Pharmacology (School of medical, Zhengzhou University, China) for providing 24 h urine samples of smokers and blank urine samples of nonsmokers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, 230031, China

    Yongfeng Tian, An Wang & Yong Liu

  2. China National Tobacco Quality Supervision and Test Center, Zhengzhou, 450001, China

    Yongfeng Tian, Hongwei Hou, Fengpeng Zhu & Qingyuan Hu

Authors
  1. Yongfeng Tian
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  2. Hongwei Hou
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  3. Fengpeng Zhu
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  4. An Wang
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  5. Yong Liu
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  6. Qingyuan Hu
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Correspondence to An Wang or Qingyuan Hu.

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Tian, Y., Hou, H., Zhu, F. et al. Simultaneous Determination of Chromium, Cadmium, and Lead and Evaluation of the Correlation between Chromium and Cotinine in Chinese Smokers. Biol Trace Elem Res 158, 9–14 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-9905-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-014-9905-y

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