Tobacco Smoke Clings to Surfaces and Can be Ingested Through Skin or Hand to Mouth Contact
Carl Brahe
Scientists have been investigating health implications of ingesting the film left on everything touched by tobacco smoke. For the past few years, researchers have called this, ‘third hand smoke’. Cigarette smoke deposits 90% of its nicotine on surfaces around the smoker according to Prof. George Matt, San Diego State University. Real estate staging experts say the oily residue builds up and can become quite thick over years of smoking in the home. It penetrates walls, carpets, drapes and furniture and can be very difficult to clean or cover up. Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, a researcher from Mass General Hospital for Children in Boston, says that third hand smoke is what you smell on people's clothes and hair when they come back from smoking outside, or the smell left in hotel rooms by smokers. He said, “Your nose isn’t lying. This stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ‘Get away.’”
Nicotine, associated with a variety of health, emotional and behavioral problems, is only one of the 250 toxic compounds that are contained in third hand tobacco smoke. These compounds include: hydrogen cyanide - used in chemical weapons; butane; toluene – used in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide and polonium-210 – highly radioactive carcinogen used to assassinate a former Russian spy in 2006.
Small children and babies who crawl on floors and furniture, and are discovering the world by chewing on everything, are the most vulnerable. Children and adults may ingest third hand smoke components through skin contact with smokers themselves and surfaces where it clings like hair, clothes, furniture, drapes ad carpet.
Some of the substances can become airborne and inhaled. Tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNA’s, are carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke. A recent study by, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, found that when exposed to tobacco smoke or other common indoor air pollutants, like nitrous acid, TSNA’s increase up to 10 times. The effects of cigarette related toxins when smoked are pretty well-known, but little is known at this point how these compounds affect people when ingested through swallowing or absorbed directly through the skin. No human exposure testing was done in association with the study at, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, and further study needs to be done, a spokesman for Altria Group, the parent company of Phillip Morris USA, the largest American cigarette manufacturer pointed out. The University of California’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program sponsored the study.
Berkeley Lab confirms thirdhand smoke causes DNA damage
Published: Thursday, June 20, 2013 - 17:35 in Health & Medicine
A study led by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found for the first time that thirdhand smoke -- the noxious residue that clings to virtually all surfaces long after the secondhand smoke from a cigarette has cleared out -- causes significant genetic damage in human cells.
- Read the Article -
Beliefs About the Health Effects of “Thirdhand”
Smoke and Home Smoking Bans
Jonathan P. Winickoff, MD, MPHa,b, Joan Friebely, EdDa, Susanne E. Tanski, MDb,c, Cheryl Sherroda, Georg E. Matt, PhDd,
Melbourne F. Hovell, PhD, MPHe, Robert C. McMillen, PhDb,f
OBJECTIVE. There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Thirdhand smoke is residual tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette is extinguished.
Children are uniquely susceptible to thirdhand smoke exposure. The objective of this study was to assess health beliefs of adults regarding thirdhand smoke exposure of children and whether smokers and nonsmokers differ in those beliefs. We hypothesized that beliefs about thirdhand smoke would be associated with household smoking bans.
- Read More -
‘Thirdhand’ smoke can expose moviegoers to the emissions of up to 10 cigarettes
Scientists have warned about the dangers of secondhand smoke for decades. And in recent years, a variety of smoking bans have saved nonsmokers from passively sucking in harmful cigarette chemicals. But a new study finds that even those restrictions might not be enough: Compounds from tobacco smoke can infiltrate well-ventilated, nonsmoking rooms and even movie theaters by hitching a ride on peoples’ clothes, skin, and hair.