[Use of hair nicotine as a tool to assess tobacco smoke exposure].

The first paper concerning hair nicotine determination was published in 1983 by Ishiyama et al. Since then, examining hair nicotine content has become a valuable tool facilitating assessment of exposure to tobacco smoke in various groups of people (active and passive smokers or even neonates and fetus). The present article describes briefly recent research studies on the use of hair nicotine as a biomarker. Furthermore, the paper describes various determination techniques related to nicotine in hair, as well as advantages and disadvantages of hair nicotine as a biomarker.