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 can see how it would matter with some items but other items I don't get it.
Hildy you say you wonder when. Remember that early detection of a great many cancers has only become possible in the last few years. You have a much better chance of finding cancer in the early stages and of having life saving treatment available. Also if you live near a teaching hospital it might not be a bad idea to see what program's are available that look at genetics and cancer.
Thank you. My Mom passed away this past January. When she caught a chest cold, I knew she'd never make it though. The years of smoking made impossible for her to heal.
How much did that woman smoke?
Why isn't there a war against grease, and those flea bombs that people gleefully bomb their homes with? LOL And bacon....well, that should have been outlawed YEARS ago. I love bacon, it's addicting don't-cha-know. ;)
Perhaps that's because I bought my paintings from a gallery and auction houses? I really don't know,
Thanks for that advice...I'll look into it.
Babies will also absorb your fart fumes, the fumes from cars driving down the street, the fmes from jets flying in the sky above, cock roach farts, pollen from rag weed, cookie fumes, , doughnut fumes, and fumes from Alamists on MSM talk shows.
Hide your babies in a bubble people. Someone may cough and give the poor tyke a cold, or worse.
Bubbles are available with complete air make up and filtration systems, and sterilized tv's, appliances, linen, clothing are all available at www.liveinabubble.com. When they turn 18, you can hook up to bubble dating service and select a disease free wife or husband for you child.
Oh, Hildy, I'm so sorry to hear that. My mother-in-law died of lung cancer but hers began as breast cancer. She had never smoked a day in her life, nor had her husband. I'd never say that smoking is healthy for anyone. But everyone has their "vices", and most vices aren't healthy ones.
Damned babies......they are carriers all.....
haha....smoking during sex.....now that is a feat...
There is a plethora of things, that are probably a whole lot worse for children to be around, than this newly invented THIRD-HAND SMOKE, but nobody's figured out a way to sue the pants off the companies that make/sell them.......yet.
Most of my grandparents and great grandparents smoked and all lived into their 80's, 90's, and one over 100.
In this day and age, smoking causes all respitory illness and cancers. We know it isn't exaust fumes, and all the other pollution in the air. That stuff is harmless. /s
Face it, blaming cigarette smoke for all health problems keeps the lefties happy, because it gives them an issue in which they can control other peopes freedoms, raise taxes on cigarettes, and opens the door to control other aspects of peoples lives, like eating. Smoking dope has no ill effects at all however, nor does the taking other chemicals, like crack, or meth, and sodomy has no health risks at all.
ROTFL! Of course, this will become writ now, no matter ridiculous it is.
My sister says that margarine is going to kill us all, and meat, and of course, our President, George Bush. LOL Third-hand smoke? That's beyond absurd, it's downright insane. Follow the money.
My Grandpa was dying at the VA hospital... He was denied the right to smoke.. his only pleasure left.. he died, and couldn't smoke in his last days. I call that a tragedy.
3-4 packs a day for almost 40 years and spent nearly all of her time in that house puffing away. Died of lung cancer.
It was freaky. I tossed all the curtains, tablecloths, etc. bcse I knew I'd never get the smell out, but I was shocked that the smell got into stuff that was sealed up.
Islam kills hundreds of thousands of people a year all over the world. Why isn't that banned? Instead, they are building giant mosks all over the USA.
Junk scientists maybe.
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