Gender dependent accumulation of dioxins in smokers
- 1Unit of Toxicology and Occupational Medicine, School of Public Health, Université catholique de Louvain, 30.54 Clos-Chapelle-aux-Champs, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium
- 2Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, University of Liège, Allée de la Chimie 3–B6c, Sart-Tilman B-4000 Liège, Belgium
- Correspondence to: Professor A Bernard Unit of Toxicology and Occupational Medicine, School of Public Health, Université catholique de Louvain, 30.54 Clos-Chapelle-aux-Champs, B-1200 Brussels, Belgium; Bernardtoxi.ucl.ac.be
- Accepted 8 July 2004
Abstract
Aims: To evaluate the contribution of tobacco smoking to dioxin accumulation.
Methods: Dioxin (17 PCDD/F) concentrations in fasting blood from 251 subjects (161 never smokers, 54 past smokers, and 36 current smokers) were quantified.
Results: Whereas serum dioxin concentrations of male smokers were on average 40% higher than those of non-smokers, in women, smoking was associated with significantly lower serum dioxin levels. A synergistic potentiation of dioxin metabolism by tobacco smoke in women is postulated to explain these paradoxical findings.
Conclusions: Current smoking is associated with gender dependent effects on dioxin body burden and is a potential source of confounding in human studies using blood dioxins as indicators of exposure.
- PCDD, polychlorinated dibenzodioxins
- PCDF, polychlorinated dibenzofurans
- cPCB, coplanar polychlorinated biphenyls
- TEQ, toxic equivalent
- BMI, body mass index
- AhR, aryl hydrocarbon receptor
