Issues

The cover is adapted from Figure 1 in the article, “Evaluation of Tobacco Smoke and Diet as Sources of Exposure to Two Heterocyclic Aromatic Amines for the U.S. Population: NHANES 2013–2014,” by Zhang and colleagues. The aim of this report was to characterize human exposure to AαC and MeAαC in the general population. The authors measured AαC and MeAαC as urinary biomarkers of exposure to these carcinogenic heterocyclic aromatic amines (HAA) as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which conducts biomonitoring of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population. From a national, population-based study, the authors showed that tobacco smoke and diet are significantly associated with AαC exposure. The findings for tobacco smoke exposure among both exclusive smokers and nonusers are consistent with the fact that AαC is the most abundant carcinogenic HAA in tobacco smoke and indicated that tobacco smoke is a major source of AαC exposure in the U.S. population, with additional lesser contributions from certain dietary components. For more information, see the article beginning on page 103.