Protect Your Kids from Dangers of Third Hand Smoke

Parents who smoke, or who have smokers as guests their house, should take note that there is no level of safe exposure to cigarette smoke that is safe for children; according to the American Journal of Pediatrics. People with children should not allow smoking in the home at all. If, in spite of all the hearth warnings, you must smoke, take it outside.

According to a study by MassGeneral Hospital for Children, which was published in the January issue of Pediatrics, tobacco smoke contamination lingers on surfaces even after the cigarette is extinguished.

Children should not have to be exposed to smoke residue in their homes, cars or anyplace where they spend time and play. Second and third hand smoke children are exposed to today can have devastating effects on their health in later years.

Most people in this day and age are aware that children have delicate lungs that can be damaged by second hand smoke. New information about third hand smoke goes beyond the damage that breathing second hand smoke can do.

Third hand smoke is the smoke residue that stays in a room hours, or even days, after cigarettes have been smoked in a room. People may need education about the dangers of third hand smoke for motivation to stop smoking in the house.

People might believe that if they smoke when the kids are not at home that it is okay, but that is not true. The tobacco toxins adhere to clothing, furniture, carpeting and other surfaces and can linger for hours or days.

Third hand smoke is the smell you get when you walk into a hotel room where people have been smoking. The whiff of smoke that you detect when passing someone in the hall or in the elevator is also third hand smoke.

Substances in third hand smoke are a toxic cocktail of hydrogen cyanide, butane, toluene, arsenic, lead, carbon monoxide and a radioactive carcinogen called polonium-210. Eleven of the compounds in third hand smoke are extremely carcinogenic.

Children are most susceptible to exposure to third hand smoke because they are closer to the floor and breathe near contaminated surfaces, such as the floor and tables surfaces. Children breathe in the smoke residue in houses where people have smoked cigarettes.

Exposure to tobacco was associated with low reading scores, showing that the compounds in tobacco smoke are neuro toxic.

Research is ongoing to learn the extent of the dangers of third hand smoke. In the meantime, children should be protected by their parents, from the potential health hazards of second and third hand smoke.

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