According to some experts, third-hand smoke, as it is known, is as dangerous to health as the fumes billowing directly from a pipe or cigarette, particularly for babies and children.
A recent report has warned that even if you don’t smoke in front of your family, you might be putting them at risk of cancer or delaying the development of their brain, thanks to polluting their environment with a lingering chemical cloud.
The warning came from a paper produced in the respected journal Paediatrics earlier this year. The study surveyed more than 1,500 households, learning that just 26.7 per cent of those that included a smoker had strict rules about not smoking in the home.
‘The dangers of third-hand smoke are very real,’ explained the leader of the study, Professor Jonathan Winickoff, of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
‘Toxic particles in cigarette smoke can remain on nearby surfaces long after the cigarette has been put out, meaning the sofa is potentially as problematic as the ashtray itself.’
Small children and babies are particularly susceptible because they crawl on the carpet and are likely to breathe in close proximity to smokers, or even lick and suck clothing or items that smokers have touched.
Tobacco smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals, including 250 poisonous gases and metals include butane (used in lighter fuel), arsenic, carbon monoxide, benzene, toluene (found in paint thinners), ammonia, chromium (used to make steel), cadmium (used to make batteries), lead and hydrogen cyanide (which is used in chemical weapons). The smoke even contains polonium-210 – the highly radioactive carcinogen used to murder Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.
[Source]
Chapter: Stop Smoking :: 18 October 2009
