Third Hand Smoke

If you think you can clear your room of second-hand smoke by opening a window or turning on a fan, think again.

Another smoking related threat to children’s health has been identified by experts, and its not easy to get rid of. Its called third-hand smoke, a term coined by doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston, US, in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children.

Third-hand smoke is the invisible toxic brew of gases and particles that lingers and settles on the cushions and carpets long after smoke has cleared from your room. Even if you smoke outdoors, third-hand smoke can still cling to your hair and clothes.

Its easy for young children to be exposed to this toxic brew. If you have small kids crawling or playing on the floor or sofa, the residue can get on their hands and ingest. This is especially worrying as the third-hand smoke includes very toxic residue of heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials.

Dr Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of paediatrics at Harvard Medical School says: “Everyone knows that 2nd hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this. When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car.

“Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids. We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”

He continues: “Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. Your nose isn’t lying. The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you, ‘Get away’.”

Says Dr Philip Landrigan, a paediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York: “The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke. There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke that they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”

Post from Quit Smoking Aids at http://quitsmokingaids.org