Third-hand Smoke
NOW YOU CAN GET SICK FROM *THIRD-HAND* SMOKE
Third-hand smoke refers to the invisible particles and gases that cling to a smoker’s clothing, hair, and furniture after the smoke itself is gone.
Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston describe the chemicals in a new study published in this month’s issue of “Pediatrics”, and they say the combination of heavy metals, carcinogens and radioactive materials poses a risk to infants and children.
The main author of the study is a guy named Jonathan Winickoff, and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
According to Jonathan, third-hand smoke is the stuff you smell when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, or when you’re in a hotel room where people were smoking.
And if third-hand smoke gets on cushions or carpeting, young children who are crawling or playing on the floor can get it on their hands and ingest it.
Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, “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.”
(New York Times)
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Paul Bergen wrote,
Not smoking is a better way to be but this recent press release regarding third hand smoke is no more than an opinion survey. People were asked how they felt about or if they knew what third hand smoke was.
To date, there is no evidence of any effects from third hand smoke (one of the authors admitted this during an interview).
There is no science going on here, just fear mongering. Lets get back to worrying about things that matter (like maybe how people are actually treating their children rather than whether they smoke or not).
Link | January 6th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Shelley wrote,
Paul,
I agree that not smoking is the way to go. There seemed to be enough evidence in the article to me to prove that 3rd hand smoke is dangerous. There are certainly lots of other important subjects to focus on but I believe 3rd hand smoke is directly connected to how people treat their children since the kids don’t really have a say most times.
Link | January 7th, 2009 at 3:18 pm