Most of us know about the dangers of second-hand smoke. But have you heard about third-hand smoke? If not, you’re not alone. A new Harvard study suggests that less than half of all US households have heard of the term, which refers to the residual toxic chemicals that can cling to people’s hair, clothing, furniture, carpeting, and other household surfaces, even after second-hand smoke has cleared the room. It’s what one smells when someone who was just smoking walks into a room, or when you enter a hotel room where people were smoking. Third-hand smoke is especially harmful to children and infants because they are more likely to inhale the chemicals when held in close proximity to a smoker, or someone who was exposed to second-hand smoke. Children are also more likely to touch and lick household surfaces, thus ingesting the toxins, which pose a cancer risk. Therefore, simply airing out a room, or even quitting smoking, may not completely protect children from the dangers of smoking. Parents should be cognizant of potential sources of third-hand smoke. A good tip is to change your clothing prior to cradling your child if you’ve been exposed to cigarette smoke.
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Tags: Cancer, chemicals, children, cigarette, smell, smoking, third-hand smoke, toxic
Dr. Steven Chang, the author of DailyDose, is a staff physician with Kosmix RightHealth. Dr. Chang practices Family Medicine at the University of California Davis Medical Center, where his medical interests include both pediatric and geriatric care, public health, gay and lesbian health, and sleep medicine. Dr. Chang trained at the Stanford University affiliated O'Connor Hospital, and was a research fellow at the National Institute of Health. He holds an M.D. from McGill University and a BA in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University.
January 8th, 2009 at 6:56 am
Aren’t we getting crazy???? I wonder how our former generations ever made it????
January 8th, 2009 at 7:34 am
my neighbour upstairs shes old and she smokes and it not only comes into my flat as she lives above me and i have a window open to a small one open and my room smells and bathroom smell of smoke and it smells dirty too and my living room aswell. i can also smell it in the hallway outside and i dont even open my front door i can still smell it. so hate to think what it smells like in her flat as she smokes night till day. i want go out front door only my other door it really does smell badly out there and i can smell it all the time too.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:07 am
hi i don,t smoke ciggertes i use to i can,t stand the small it really stinks up my hair my clothes it,s not healthy.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
This smoking thing is out of hand. We can’t smoke 30 feet from a public place or building and now this crap about third hand smoke!!! Next we won’t be able to smoke in our own houses or cars!!! Smoking is bad, we all know that and so are a lot of other things. Get a grip people and start looking for trouble in real areas like our food and polluted air. Yeah, I smoke and I like it!!
January 8th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
My nephew had RDS or respiratory distress syndrome when he was an infant. He was admitted to Pediatric ICU with a case of acute respiratory distress syndrome. This was attributed to this “third hand smoke”. It wasn’t called that then(he is 11 now). He nearly died from it. People can say what they want about it being their business what they do, but it can have a devastating effect on children. I wonder how many children have died from “third hand smoke” problems!! this could be serious.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
It amazes me that research funded by tobacco companies is rejected out of hand with contempt yet research funded by anti smoking lobbies is embraced without question as if it were revealed truth straight from the deity. When someone can explain to me why the incidence of lung cancer in women contiues to rise while the number of women who smoke has been declining for twenty years then perhaps I ll pay attention, When I meet a cardiologist who can tell me he s actually read the research and doesn t say NO but every one knows…. then I ll also pay attention. I m fed up with political correctness I m 75 and have smoked for 63 years
January 8th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
My roommate smokes outside, but the smell is still in the house and being an ex-smoker, I hate it. Unfortunately, I didn’t know she smoked when I signed the sub-lease… I couldn’t quite figure out the smell and assumed it was cause she was older (in her 50s) and just had musky perfumes, but found out that was not the case
January 8th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
It’s simple, Ron. The incidence is going up because the tobacco companies have been steadily increasing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes over time, a fact to which they have admitted publicly and in court. So I hope now you will start paying attention. (And by the way, why do you want to meet a cardiologist – i.e. a heart specialist – who has read studies on cancer, instead of meeting an oncologist – i.e. a cancer specialist? That makes no sense.)
And research on cigarettes is neither rejected out of hand nor embraced automatically based on the source. It goes through a rigorous process known as “peer-review”, wherein other researchers in the field try to pick it apart. Not surprisngly, tobacco-company-funded research fails to hold up under this high level of scientific scrutiny. The research against smoking is in fact so strong that even the current Surgeon General (who was appointed by the pro-tobacco George W. Bush) was forced to admit in his report on smoking from a couple of years ago that it is even worse than was thought.
Dr. Sergei Rostov
January 8th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Melissa -
Why should you be allowed to smoke at all?
It’s a a fact that cigarettes kill everyone who smokes them. Do you believe suicide and attempted suicide should be legalized?
It’s a fact that smoking decreases the blood flow to the brain, and further, it replaces part of the oxygen in the blood with carbon monoxide. Do you believe you have the right to drive while mentally impaired?
It’s a fact toxic chemicals in cigarettes come out your skin for hours, even days, after you have smoked.
– Said chemicals are known to damage plant life, fabrics, and stone. Do you believe you have the right to damage the property of others?
– Said chemicals, even at these low levels, can of course also harm and even kill others. Do you feel you have the right to harm and even kill others?
All of this, just because you like doing something?
Dr. Sergei Rostov