Salivary Cotinine Levels of Hired Latino Youth Tobacco Workers in North Carolina

ABSTRACT

Background

Limited research has examined the health implications for youth working in United States tobacco production. Agricultural labor is hazardous, yet youth are legally permitted to be hired as farmworkers. Many youth farmworkers are members of the vulnerable Latino farmworker community. In North Carolina, youth work in many agricultural crops including tobacco.

Methods

A sample of 152 Latino youth farmworkers ages 12–20 years (M = 16.7, SD = 2.0) across 19 North Carolina counties completed a cross-sectional survey and provided saliva samples in 2019. Surveys detailed personal and work characteristics. Saliva samples were analyzed for salivary cotinine and reported in geometric means (ng/ml). Bivariate associations were used to delineate the relationship between personal and work characteristics with salivary cotinine levels.

Results

Cotinine levels ranged from 0.05 to 313.5 ng/ml. Older age and working in tobacco were significantly associated with higher salivary cotinine levels. For every one year increase in age, there was a 31% increase in mean salivary cotinine levels (b = 1.31; 95% CI = [1.15–1.50]; p < .0001). Youth tobacco workers’ (n = 15) salivary cotinine levels were 890% higher than those not working in tobacco (n = 137) (13.26, 95% CI = [5.95–29.56] ng/ml compared to 1.34, 95% CI = [1.03–1.75] ng/ml (p < .0001)).

Conclusions

Latino youth tobacco workers are exposed to nicotine through their work. This exposure presents serious risk of Green Tobacco Sickness (acute nicotine poisoning) and other health concerns given the growing evidence for risk of epigenetic changes negatively affecting long-term cognitive function. Policy is urgently needed to protect this vulnerable population of adolescent workers.

KEYWORDS:

• Nicotine
• Green Tobacco sickness
• Latino youth farmworkers
• salivary cotinine

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the support and participation of Student Action with Farmworkers’ Levante Leadership Institute co-investigators and members who serve as the youth advisory committee, and the members of the professional advisory committee. We also appreciate the valuable contributions of our community field interviewers in carrying out participant recruitment and data collection. We especially thank the children who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development under Award Number R01HD084420. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.