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

The University of Texas System (UT)

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Nicotine Exposure

Treatments: Drug: 2% Chlorohexidine Gluconate soap; Drug: 62% ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT04155697

HSC-MS-15-0614 (sub-study)

R03HD088847 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

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.

Enrollment: 14 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion 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.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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14 participants in 2 patient groups

Hand washing with soap for thirdhand smoke removal

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: 2% Chlorohexidine Gluconate soap

Ethyl alcohol-based sanitizer for thirdhand smoke removal

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Drug: 62% ethyl alcohol-based hand sanitizer