Environmental tobacco smoke: nicotine and cotinine concentration in semen.

Forty-three nonsmokers attending an infertility clinic reported their degree of passive exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) and provided samples of blood and seminal plasma. Levels of nicotine and cotinine in biological fluid were evaluated by a radioimmunoassay. The data indicate that exposure to ETS results in measurable nicotine and cotinine levels in seminal plasma. Seminal plasma cotinine concentration also shows a significant positive correlation with degree of reported exposure.