OPINION
Page 6 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
September 3, 2018
Volume 28 Number 17
September 3, 2018
ISSN: 1094-9453
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A new worry for smokers’
families: “Thirdhand Smoke”
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Kaiser Health News / Kaiser Family Foundation
ichael Miller does what most smokers do
to protect his sons and daughter from the
fumes of his Marlboro Ultra Lights. He
takes it outside.
After his 7:00am coffee, he walks out of his home
in Cincinnati to smoke his first cigarette of the day.
Then, as a branch manager of a road-safety
construction company, he smokes dozens more on
street curbs.
The tobacco never appears when Miller is
coaching on the baseball or football field, or when
he’s in the car with his children. But when he’s alone
on the road, he sometimes rolls the windows down
and lights up.
“I know [cigarettes are] bad,” Miller said. “I know
I need to quit.”
Recent findings highlight the scientific commu-
nity’s efforts to identify potential dangers of another
byproduct of cigarettes that may slip past Miller’s
precautions and affect his kids: “thirdhand smoke.”
A study in the journal Tobacco Control found high
levels of nicotine on the hands of children of
smokers, raising concerns about thirdhand smoke,
a name given to the nicotine and chemical residue
left behind from cigarette and cigar smoke that can
cling to skin, hair, clothes, rugs, and walls. This thin
film can be picked up by touch or released back into
the air when disturbed.
The researchers examined 25 children who
arrived at an emergency room with breathing
problems associated with secondhand smoke
exposure.
They discovered the average level of nicotine on
the children’s hands was more than three times
higher than the level of nicotine found on the hands
of non-smoking adults who live with smokers. They
said nicotine on the skin of a nonsmoker is a good
proxy to measure exposure to thirdhand smoke.
“Because nicotine is specific to tobacco, its
presence on children’s hands may serve as a proxy of
tobacco smoke pollution in their immediate
environment,” the researchers wrote.
They also found that all but one of the children
had detectable levels in their saliva of cotinine, a
biomarker for exposure to nicotine. All of the
children in the study had parents who smoked but
did not smoke themselves.
The high nicotine readings on the kids’ hands,
coupled with the “light smoking” habits of the
majority of their parents, signalled to lead author E.
Melinda Mahabee-Gittens that these toxins could
have arrived from a source other than direct access
to cigarette smoke.
“Clearly they’re getting it from somewhere, and
M
Thirdhand smoke can linger in an
area long after a cigarette or cigar is
snuffed out — for up to five years.
perhaps it may be this thirdhand smoke
connection,” said Mahabee-Gittens, an emergency-
room physician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
Medical Center.
Children face a higher risk of developing health
complications from thirdhand smoke than adults.
Infants tend to spend more time indoors and can be
surrounded by contaminated objects like rugs and
blankets, according to a 2004 study written by
Georg Matt, a professor of psychology at San Diego
State University who co-authored the study and has
researched thirdhand smoke. An infant’s
propensity to place their hands in their mouth
increases the likelihood of the young ingesting the
toxic residue.
Thirdhand smoke can linger in an area long after
a cigarette or cigar is snuffed out — for up to five
years, Matt said.
“Tobacco smoke doesn’t go up in the air and it
disappears and it’s gone,” Matt said. “That’s the
illusion.”
The negative health consequences of secondhand
smoke are well established.
Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention estimate that since 1964 at
least 2.5 million nonsmokers have died of diseases
linked to their exposure to cigarette smoke.
In contrast, research on thirdhand smoke gained
popularity only a decade ago, but multiple studies
suggest the mix of toxins can lead to adverse health
outcomes. An animal model simulating thirdhand-
smoke-contaminated homes found the chemicals
harmed mice’s livers, lungs, and healing abilities. A
separate 2010 study showed thirdhand smoke
mixed with nitrous acid — a gas sometimes emitted
from leaky gas stoves — can form cancer-causing
chemical compounds. These toxins have also been
shown to damage human DNA.
“All in all, I think the evidence that we’ve
gathered is basically pointing to potentially high
levels of risk to young children and toddlers, and
also expectant mothers,” said Anwer Mujeeb,
program officer for the Tobacco-Related Disease
Research Program.
Unfortunately, removing thirdhand smoke from
a child’s environment is no easy task. The variety of
compounds that make up cigarette residue react to
cleaning products differently, Matt said, making it
difficult to purge a space of pollutants.
Governments and agencies across the nation
have attempted to curb the threat of smoke expo-
Continued on page 8
Opinions expressed in this newspaper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of this publication.