Third-Hand Smoke

[the4thpip]

Now that nobody can seriously deny the dangers of second hand smoke anymore, here comes... Third-Hand Smoke!

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.’”
More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html?ref=health

[Alan Lynch]

Ironically, the writers of that article had done some serious smoking beforehand, maybe. Is it aimed at non-smokers who don't give much of a shit about people smoking near them? Because it hasn't worked.

[Crowley]

4th hand smoke is even more dangerous.

When you think someone might have smoked once when you lived or worked or ate!

The terrors will never end!

[Alan Lynch]

I'm waiting for fossilised smoke. I read that T-Rex's ickle arms evolved to root out lung cancer.

[Nick Soapdish]

I'll be the first to say that it stinks ... and for a lot longer than most smokers seem to think it does. But I'm not exactly buying it as a threat. Even if it has loads of nasty stuff, there is the question of concentrations (by loads, I meant lots of different kinds) and transmission.

Maybe for a really young child that sticks everything in their mouth or if the affected area is really saturated. But otherwise, I'm not concerned.

[Alan Lynch]

“Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”
Is a fart joke too base here? I love this article.

[Yoda]

And my wife laughed when I suggested raising our baby in a sterile high gravity chamber on a remote island. You can never be too cautious.

[Bob Violence]

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 acknowledgment of the risks of third-hand smoke.
So this is about the perception of risk, not the actual risk itself. Because there are no statistics in this article that claim any sort of danger associated with this 'Third-Hand Smoke" menace. Winickoff, the doctor they quote as having lead the study, doesn't deliver the goods. This is pure hysteria.

[the4thpip]

I'll be the first to say that it stinks ... and for a lot longer than most smokers seem to think it does. But I'm not exactly buying it as a threat. Even if it has loads of nasty stuff, there is the question of concentrations (by loads, I meant lots of different kinds) and transmission.

Maybe for a really young child that sticks everything in their mouth or if the affected area is really saturated. But otherwise, I'm not concerned.

Scientists have been unable to determine a threshold under which cigarette smoke is not toxic. In that way, it is quite different from alcohol.

[Royal]

*throws beer soaked shirt*

Fear my second hand drinking!!!

[the4thpip]

Both alcohol and tobacco can improve an ugly date:

http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,1301080,00.jpg

[Paul McEnery]

*throws beer soaked shirt*

Fear my second hand drinking!!!

I certainly fear your two-fisted drinking!

[section 8]

That article...........made me want a cigarette.
I swear if people would stop talking so much bout smoking I might actually quit Oh Idea for new sig!

[mgs]

while I am the occassional smoker, I do believe in this 'study'. about remaining chemicals and such.

that said, I believe pollution and air pollution in general, are more dangerous to our health than something like this.