2nd hand smoke in blood stream (M)

[one l michele]

My dh had an appointment yesterday to go over urine and blood work results. He has never smoked, I do not smoke either. He grew up in a home where both parents smoked. He had Cotinine levels in his blood, which the doctor said is from second hand smoke. It's been 18 years since he's lived at home and his parents have since quite smoking. He eats right, exercises daily, and tries to make healthy choices - it was quite disturbing to learn this.

[Janna]

Wow! So what's to be done about that? Is it indeed caused by the smoke he grew up with, even though it's been so long? Or is it caused by 2nd hand smoke in say, restaurants or what have you? That would be concerning to me to, but I'd want to know how to take care of it, if it were even possible. Poor dh! Poor Michele!

~Janna

[Rhonda in TX]

DH's dad smoked until about 5 years ago, when he developed the first signs of emphesyma. I worry about what is in DH's body because of that. :( I worry about MIL, too. She's never smoked, but of course has lived with FIL all these years, who started smoking as a teenager.

[one l michele]

Wow! So what's to be done about that? Is it indeed caused by the smoke he grew up with, even though it's been so long? Or is it caused by 2nd hand smoke in say, restaurants or what have you? That would be concerning to me to, but I'd want to know how to take care of it, if it were even possible. Poor dh! Poor Michele!

~Janna

the doctor asked dh several questions about his lifestyle and concluded it is infact from second hand smoke and likely from his childhood. Dh eat out maybe once a year, our boys have food allergies and we simply prefer to eat at home. We have "date nights" at home once the kids go to bed at least once a week. He's never worked in a smoking environment and we've always kept our house & cars smoke free. I was shocked that this many years later, even second hand smoke would still show in the blood stream.

[Scarlett]

I am inclined to believe the test was faulty. A very close friend of mine, that has never smoked and whose parents never smoked had blood work done to buy life insurance and it showed that cotinine was in his blood. They denied him the good rated based on that...he went elsewhere and his blood showed no cotinine.....we often wondered if someone switched samples to get someone else the preferred life insurance rate.