[Tobacco consumption and carboxyhemoglobin levels in blood donors]

The authors studied the tobacco consumption of 283 blood donors and its consequences. 151 were nonsmokers and 132 were smokers (47.7% smoke more than 10 g/day). Their mean HbCO level was 4.3 +/- 0.2% (highest level 15%). HbCO levels are significantly correlated with daily tobacco consumption (p less than 0.001) and can be estimated with the following regression equation: HbCO% = 0.176 (tobacco in grams/day) + 1.976. For a similar consumption, inhalers exhibit significantly (p less than 0.001) higher HbCO levels than noninhalers and the increase is significantly higher (p less than 0.02) in inhalers who smoked 1 h or less prior to blood sampling. High HbCO levels have two consequences: in the donors they have caused a tobacco polycythemia syndrome and in the recipients they have caused acute problems in cases of massive blood transfusion and cardiovascular surgery with extracorporeal circulation.