[Evaluation of the tobacco smoke exposure among students living in students' dormitories].

Passive smoking results from involuntary smoke inhalation in the environment where tobacco and other tobacco products are smoked. This is a common situation in numerous public objects, as restaurants, offices, dormitories and students' clubs. Non-smokers are exposed to very high concentrations of tobacco smoke in these places. Environmental exposure to tobacco smoke of the inhabitants of the Pharmacy School dormitory in Sosnowiec was studied. The evaluation was based on urine cotinine concentration measured with the HPLC method. Additionally, a Fagerström test was conducted among declared smokers in order to evaluate the degree of their pharmacologic addiction to nicotine. The obtained results indicate that non-smoking dormitory inhabitants are strongly exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, but active smokers did not presented with pharmacological addiction to nicotine.