[Observed smoking in car: results of a study of the Regional Health Prevention Service of Veneto, Northern Italy]. / La prevalenza dell'abitudine a fumare in automobile: i risultati dello studio osservazionale in Veneto.

OBJECTIVE: to estimate the prevalence of smokers inside cars or duty vehicles and the presence of children exposed to second hand smoke on board, in the NHS districts of Veneto Region. DESIGN: an observational study was carried out by the technicians of the Prevention department from October 1st to October 17th 2008. The observers had to record sex of the driver and of the passengers, their presumed ages, verify if drivers or passengers were smoking, and if there were any children on board. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: 19 Local Health Authorities (90,5%) out of 21 in the Veneto region. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: percentage of crossings monitored out of the total scheduled. RESULTS: a total of 5,928 cars were examined at the crossings, males accounted for 61,4% of the drivers. Smoking overall by at least one person in the car was reported in 409 cases (6.9%, 12% among commercial vehicles), the driver alone was smoking in 87.3% of the cases, whereas only the passenger smoking represented 8.3% of the cases. Both the driver and passenger smoking were 4.4% of the observations. Children were present as passengers in 762 cars (12.9%); there were people smoking with children on board in 7 cars (0.9%). CONCLUSION: in spite of the efforts to limit the dangers of second hand smoke, smoking in car is still a common behaviour, and represents a serious risk both for both, adults and children. Focusing in research projects could help the Department of Prevention of the Local Health Authorities to increase their activities and involvement in the research field.

[Smoking in car: monitoring pollution of particulate matter, of organic volatile compounds and of carbon monoxide. The effect of opening the driver's window]. / Fumare in macchina: l'inquinamento da polveri, da composti organici volatili e da monossido di carbonio. L'effetto dell'apertura del finestrino.

OBJECTIVE: to identify the most suitable marker for monitoring ETS inside a moving car, and to verify the efficacy of window opening to reduce ETS pollution inside the car. DESIGN: experimental pilot study. SSETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: monitoring of ETS markers in a moving car. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: we used real time analyzers to measure: n particulate matter as mass (mug/m3, PM1, PM2.5, PM10); n suspended particle number (total number of particles sized >0.3 e >0.4 mum; n the number of particles with aerodynamic size between 0.3-0.4 mum in diameter; n total volatile organic compounds (TVOC); n carbon monoxide (CO). The recordings were carried out inside a car moving on the road at the speed of 50 km/h, with controlled conditions of temperature and relative humidity. RESULTS: after lighting a cigarette, with driver's window closed, the levels of all the pollutants increased dramatically, with peaks of 700 mug/m3 for PM2.5 and PM10, and of over 600,000 particles/ liter, while TVOC reached values up to 6,000 mug/m3 and CO up to 6 ppm. When a cigarette was lit with the window 1/4 open, excess pollution was promptly recorded, although with less intensity. With the window completely open, PM, TVOC and CO concentrations were hardly measurable as compared to background levels. On the contrary, particle number increased dramatically up to over 300,000/liter, mostly due to the submicrometric particle fraction in the range 0.3-0.4 mum. CONCLUSION: smoking just a cigarette inside a car represents an extremely high exposure to ETS. Partially opening the window is useless to prevent the accumulation of pollutants. Complete window opening is helpful to remove coarse PM and volatile pollutants, but is ineffective against submicrometer particles. Measuring particle number seems to be the best way to assess ETS pollution inside a car.