Posted on 08/07/2006 9:30:09 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
As any parent knows, crawling babies explore the world by touching - and tasting - anything they can get their wet little hands on.
If their parents use tobacco, that curiosity may expose babies to what some doctors are calling "thirdhand" smoke - particles and gases given off by cigarettes that cling to walls, clothes and even hair and skin. Up to 90% of the nicotine in cigarette smoke sticks to nearby surfaces, says Georg Matt, a professor at San Diego State University.
Preliminary research by Matt and others suggests the same chemicals that leave a stale cigarette odor on clothes and upholstery also can be swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin of non-smokers. Smoke residue may linger for hours, days or months, depending on the ventilation and the level of contamination. In some cases, contaminants may need to be removed by rigorously cleaning or replacing wallpaper, rugs and drapes, Matt says.
Matt cautions that his research needs to be confirmed by other studies. But his work suggests that babies may take in nicotine and other chemicals just by hugging their mothers - even if their mothers never light up next to them.
About 43% of children ages 2 months to 11 years live with a smoker, according to research described in Matt's 2004 study in the journal Tobacco Control.
In his small study of 49 infants under 13 months old, Matt found nicotine in the air and dust throughout smokers' homes, even when parents smoked only outside. Tests also found a nicotine byproduct, cotinine, in babies' urine and inside shafts of their hair.
As expected, babies whose parents smoked around them had the highest cotinine levels - nearly 50 times higher than the babies of non-smokers, according to the study.
Smokers who tried to shield their infants had only partial success, Matt says. The babies of parents who smoked only outside had cotinine levels seven times higher than in the infants of non-smokers, the study showed.
Adults also may be exposed to significant smoke residue if they rent cars, hotel rooms or apartments that have soaked up years of smoke, Matt says. He worries more about youngsters, however, because they may be exposed day and night for years.
Children also may be at greater risk because they breathe faster than adults and inhale more chemicals, says Jonathan Winickoff, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Crawling babies may take in chemicals through their skin.
Though scientists have extensive evidence about the damage caused by secondhand smoke, they know relatively little about the potential risks of thirdhand exposure, says Brett Singer, a scientist at California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. "The million-dollar question is: How dangerous is this?" Singer says. "We can't say for sure this is a health hazard."
Matt agrees that doctors should study children - ideally for 10 or 15 years or more - to see whether low levels of smoke residue worsen asthma or harm the development of a child's lungs.
I'm not so sure about that. I think the rise in cancer is only because more people live long enough to get cancer. The reduction in many causes of death must cause an equal rise in the percentage of some other cause of death. But even if all diseases could be stopped, the death rate would spike on accidents, suicide, homicide, and Chuck Norris.
Cancer is better and more quickly detected now, than it was even 20 years ago.
I smoke, not nearly as much as your relative, but the things in my pantry don't smell of smoke.
And you could have easily gotten the smoke smell out of linens by washing them. Instead, you threw them out.
Like burning candles around the house, only with no fire hazard!
Look it up. Refined white sugar is the # 1 killer today.
It has a half like simular to nuclear waste. Seriously, look up the danger of refined sugar. You'll be suprized.
I got every hand of smoke I could possibly get growing up. Not only did my parents smoke, but nearly every adult I was around smoked. My mother smoked while pregnant with us, holding us, etc, etc. Homes, cars, stores- everywhere we went there was smoke and no one tried to shield us from it.
I only remember knowing one- repeat ONE child with asthma or breathing problems of any kind while growing up and no one in his family smoked- they did not have pets, and his mother kept a spotless house. I could easily come to the conclusion that all of those things are harmful to children.LOL
I have a really hard time believing some of this. I do not think smoking is good for anyone and I do not agree with smoking around children- but give me a break I think much of this is just downright silly.
Just as a side note to how much the thinking has changed- my mother gave me her old baby care book and it actually said that new nervous mothers should have a beer and smoke a cigarette to relax before breastfeeding so their milk would come down easier. I did really get a chuckle out of that one-mostly thinking about the reaction to that advice from many people I could think of; before I get flamed- NO I did not follow that advice.
LOL I prefer butter myself, but even then, I don't use much of either butter nor margarine. I'm going to bring in the doggies now and head off to bed. It's only 10:00, and still light out, but I'm dog-gone tired tonight.
Linens? That stuff listed isn't all foods?
Not to mention other diseases, that used to kill people, such as measles, whopping cough, small pox, pneumonia,
cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, etc., etc., etc.!
Also ask yourself, have you EVER seen sugar go bad? A jelly bean 100 years old is edible. Unless contaminated with something else, sugar does not decompose. It doesn't decompose in your body either, and is one of the most dificult things for your body to digest. It's extremely hard on your liver and kidneys nd digestive system. It propably causes more cancer than cigarette smoking does, smoking just triggers cancer in a body weakened by something else, like sugar.
Really? Wow, you know everything.
Bull Hockey. Saliva and stomach enzymes turn sucrose back to glucose and fructose which are metabolized normally.
That is one PO'd puddytat!
This sounds like a variant of the ever-popular dead-baby joke. "need to clean those nicotine stains off the wallpaper before the big party? Pick yourself up a sixpack of babies. The walls will be clean (of nicotine) in no time!"
My mother smoked, but my father didn't. Just about every single adult I ever knew/was around smoked and like you, I knew just one, ONE, child, whose parents did not smoke, who has asthma.
I agree with all the rest of what you said, as well. :-)
I have lived on a ranch my whole life and I have made one observation, if a cow (and many other critters) lives to old age it will get cancer. I have rarely seen that fail. Another observation I have made is that I have yet to see a cow smoking a cigarette or being in a house, car, or airplane with smokers.
I believe more people get cancer because more people are living longer and also because it is diagnosed better.
I do think smoking is bad for anyone and I also think if you are prone to anything like allergies, asthma, or cancer smoking may make you even more likely to get it.
I just think this is like a lot of other things in history, someone discovers something is bad and before you know it people are getting so far out there on the subject it is unreal. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle just as it is for a million other harmful things.
Good night..........pleasant dreams................
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