Posted on 01/04/2009 7:32:20 AM PST by reaganaut1
Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air of second-hand smoke, but experts now have identified another smoking-related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.
That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.
Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.
“Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
“When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car. Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”
Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In our steadily more unfree country, I'm sure this research will be cited as another reason to tax cigarettes even more or even ban them entirely, even though this will lead to more evasion of the law.
Someday, we will celebrate the attainment of a risk free society, and promptly be arrested for it.
I saw we start bitching about forth-hand and fifth-hand smoke now! Nest week we start whining about sixth-hands smoke!
“It would give them another reason to quit or at least to smoke only in parts of the house (or outside) where their children do not go”
According to the article, this has nothing to do with not smoking AROUND them (even with a cracked window), but the odor of cig smoke that lingers.
So bring on the sniff police!
Why don’t we just give every newborn a spacesuit to wear and be done with it....
“First hand liberal” is far more dangerous.
In other words, what the scientist are actually saying -
“I don’t like people smoking - even if I am nowhere near them and cannot smell actual smoke.”
“I don’t like the way smokers smell, and I am going to fabricate some “evidence” that can be used as the basis of a law to prohibit smoking entirely.”
This is just a slight variation on the global warming scam.
And no - I am not a smoker
Can we determine when smoking reached its highest use?
Was that the period when life expectancy shot up in Western civilizations from 35+ to over 75?
Can you smell gasoline when you open your car window to let out the cigarette smoke? Wonder which is more of a health risk?
>>In a free country this information about “third-hand” smoke could be useful information for parents who smoke<<
Or it could be BS like Second hand smoke.
in the words of the evil planned parenthood.
“Keep your laws off of my body”
Damn fools. The hallmark of liberalism is arrogance. They don’t see themselves as just another person on the planet, they see themselves as saviors of mankind (global warming, food restrictions,environmentalism, welfare, socialized medicine,etc.) and the universe.
I am a smoker.I understand and respect people’s wishes not to suffer smoke, even in my own home. But the anti-smoking nazis are out of control. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I remember as a child, sitting backwards in the back of the station wagon, smelling my dad light up his Lucky Strike with his zippo. That first hit always smelled the best!
what about the sloughing off of skin cells from aids infected turd burglers????
second hand buggery should be a crime!
I don’t smoke, but this I call Bull$h!t.
Excellent analysis.
Inquiring minds want to know.
The very word ‘cigarette’ paralyzes the brains of many in our society, including a goodly number on Free Republic.
I am not a communist but ... (wait, that’s what we had to say during the McCarthy era)... let me change that.
I am not a smoker and never have been, but this is beyond ridiculous.
These people could go way beyond even that.....
What about "new car smell", body odor, purfume, the smell of apple pie, the smell of a dog pile, the smell of a pig farm, the smell of freshly mowed grass.......
Smells, good AND bad, could be found to be "dangerous". We had better just outlaw nature then kill ourselves and get it over with.
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