A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’ (ok, yall, it's not new...people are just realizing it...we've been subjected to this stuff since cigs were invented - clt)
('http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html');
'Toxic residue from cigarette smoke clings to hair and carpets, endangering children, experts say.'
'Smoking and Tobacco,Children and Youth,Medicine and Health,Hazardous and Toxic Substances'
new_york_times:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: January 2, 2009
Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air for their children, but experts now have identified a related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.
That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after
second-hand smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.
Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.
“Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of
pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
“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,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”
Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were
smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”
The study reported on attitudes toward smoking in 1,500 households across the United States. It found that the vast majority of both smokers and nonsmokers were aware that second-hand smoke is harmful to children. Some 95 percent of nonsmokers and 84 percent of smokers agreed with the statement that “inhaling smoke from a parent’s cigarette can harm the health of infants and children.”
But far fewer of those surveyed were aware of the risks of third-hand smoke. Since the term is so new, the researchers asked people if they agreed with the statement that “breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children.” Only 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers agreed with that statement, which researchers interpreted as acknowledgement of the risks of third-hand smoke.
The belief that second-hand smoke harms children’s health was not independently associated with strict smoking bans in homes and cars, the researchers found. On the other hand, the belief that third-hand smoke was harmful greatly increased the likelihood the respondent also would enforce a strict smoking ban at home, Dr. Winickoff said.
“That tells us we’re onto an important new health message here,” he said. “What we heard in focus group after focus group was, ‘I turn on the fan and the smoke disappears.’ It made us realize how many people think about second-hand smoke — they’re telling us they know it’s bad but they’ve figured out a way to do it.”
The data was collected in a national random-digit-dial telephone survey done between September and November 2005. The sample was weighted by race and gender, based on census information.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior.
“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,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a
cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”
Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic. This - everyone, is why i would like the smoking ban passed in Michigan, and why we don't allow smoking at our home (in on or around it) and we've asked that people come smoke free (doesn't usually happen...)...NOT just covering it up with smelly stuff...You see...smoke sticks to everything, you smoke, it's on your entire body (even those that are just around people that smoke) your furniture and clothing that is just sitting in your house...and when someone comes. brings in smokey stuff from their home and sits on my couch...i too get to share in it! i smell it for days, i have to use inhalers sometimes just to sit on my couch! Some might think that's far fetched, but I have asthma, allergies, etc...it hits me when there's smoke around...i, along with my children are affected my children - sneeze, cough...they've gotten up in the middle of the night wheezing after being exposed. That sucks and it's scary. Smoker's have the right to smoke...but we have the right to be free of the nasties (and deadlies) listed above. We also choose this for our children. Maybe, if you agree...you can contact your lansing leaders and let them no that you have the right to not smoke in public... Campaign for Smokefree air: http://www.makemiairsmokefree.org/index.phpThis is not meant to offend anyone...just to get the word out. If you smoke - hey, glad you can make that choice for yourself - you have that right! I'm just hoping that the majority (70something percent of us are non-smokers!) can enjoy their rights as well...
it's so amazing to children to see their bodies work! the next pic is him trying...he tries while watching and i'm amazed he hasn't fallen face first off the toilet!
it's so amazing to children to see their bodies work! the next pic is him trying...he tries while watching and i'm amazed he hasn't fallen face first off the toilet!
