Third-hand cigarette smoke residue can be deadly, lab finds

A California research lab has found in a recent that third-hand smoke, or the residue of cigarettes that is left on clothing, paper or walls, is extremely carcinogenic when combined with an indoor pollutant.
“The biggest message is the study reveals that the tobacco smoke residue that remains after smoking, sometimes days or weeks later, could pose a risk to people who occupy that space or use it,” said Lara Gundel, the co-principal investigator in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That risk increases when the residue combines with a common indoor pollutant, nitrous acid, Gundel said. Nitrous acid usually floats inside a building and is generated by unvented gas appliances or diesel engines.
Together the residue and pollutant become potentially even more carcinogenic, forming a tobacco-specific nitrosamine, which is extremely hazardous, the scientist explained. In fact Gundel said when nicotine and nitrous acid combine, Gundel said, they are much more dangerous than just nicotine.
According to the chemist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory at the University of California, a recent study the lab did has found that not only is smoke residue a hazard for people who come in contact with it, but that the residue can stay on people and is transported back into homes, offices or even the dashboard of a car.
Here in Ontario, smoking in vehicles with children is banned as is smoking in public places in Toronto. But residue remains on people’s clothes and skin even when they smoke outdoors, since then they bring it inside, Gundel said.
The dangers of mainstream and second-hand smoke have long been known – with cancer, cardiovascular disease and stroke, as well as pulmonary disease and birth defects high on the list.
But third-hand smoke has only recently made the headlines. The term was first used in a study that appeared in the January 2009 issue of Pediatrics that found 65 per cent of non-smokers and 43 per cent of smokers surveyed agreed with the statement that “breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children.”