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.
Don't be silly. Everyone dies, and there is always a reason. Do you find it surprising that death by falling off horses has fallen yet death by cancer has risen?
If you think that's bad, try cleaning out a house where the occupant had 10 cats for 40 years. That stink cannot be removed. The only thing that works on that is a match.
Lol. As kids, we used to joke that my Aunt Rosey's favorite perfume was Ashtray by Phillipe Maurice.
Yes galleries and auction houses are much more likely to properly care for paintings. I know what you mean about the soot. I am always amazed when there is an article about art restoration showing the results of centuries of soot, grime, dirt and other crap being cleared away. Wow who knew that the Sistine Chapel had color in it!!!.
Perhaps that's because cancer is better detected than it was when people rode horses instead of cars.
You are welcome. I wish you a long and healthy life.
Yeah, that definitely sounds like a job for your friendly neighborhood torch :)
Almost unbelievable? So you think I'm almost a liar?
Plus people are eating more processed foods, and the chemistry used in them than they did 100 years ago.
Refined sugar consumption, a POISON, has increased dramatically. That alone causes cancer and other serious diseases, like diabetes.
Nobody dies from the measles, today, either. :-)
Oh yes........follow the money!
So do I.
So.... if people have more abortions they can place the fetuses around the home in order to reduce smoke residue? Sheesh. (Rolling eyes) Embryonic stem cells, smoke residue absorbers - - what will those sick liberal Democrat scumbags at Planned Parenthood think of next?
My mom was a smoker. She turned 93 last month.
I don't think smoking causes cancer directly, it most likely just helps cancers take hold in a body which is weak from a whole variety of reasons, poor diet, exposure to other harmfull chemicals, such as working in a metal refinery, or a plastic molding factory, a paint factory, cloth factory, welding, diesel shop, etc etc.
people smoked, and DIDN'T die when they worked outdoors and chopped wood. Even non- smoking farmers died of black lung from inhaling SOIL and grain dust.
try www.FreeCycle.org
OMG That's funny!
Auction houses and most galleries, don't "take care" of the paintings they sell...they sell them. Sometimes they do get paintings cleaned, but not always. They are just the middlemen between the seller and the buyer; that's it.
I have a smallish painting ( oil ) that I inherited. It belonged to my great grandmother. She didn't smoke, but my great grandfather sometimes smoked a pipe. The painting was very dirty; dirty from age and exposure to whatever was in where they had lived. My grandmother never hung that picture and I was the first to do so.
I had the painting cleaned about 26 years ago. It's now very vibrant and I like it a lot. Oh, and BTW, I smoke and the painting still looks brand new. As a matter of fact, I have now smoked around it more, for the past 16 years, than I ever did, during the first 25 years I owned it. LOL
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