Thirdhand Smoke Contamination in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2018-09-11
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

The purpose of the study is to quantify the efficacy of hand washing (HW) and ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer (S) for third-hand smoke (THS) removal in a sub-sample of non-staff smokers using nicotine wipes on adjacent fingers before and after HW/S.

The hypotheses are that detectable levels of surface nicotine will remain on participants' fingers, regardless of hand washing (HW) and ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer (S) attempts and that greater finger levels of surface nicotine will remain after alcohol sanitization compared to hand washing.

• Phase: Phase 1
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Details

• Lead Sponsor: The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
• Collaborator: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
• Treatments: Ethanol; Hand Sanitizers

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria ():

• Any non-staff participants visiting the NICU (including friends and family members of the infants' caregivers)

• Consented to and provided a finger wipe

• Report being a smoker

• Smoking status verified by an exhaled carbon monoxide (CO) level of >7 parts per million

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unwilling to comply with research procedures (i.e., finger wipes)

• Does not speak English.