Air date: May 9, 2010

Host:

Email
Share this segment
Download MP3

In the 1960s we learned about the dangers of smoking. A few decades later, we started hearing about the health risks of second-hand smoke. And now doctors are looking the latest installment in the litany of smoking health hazards: third-hand smoke.

"Third hand smoke is the residue that lingers on surfaces during and after smoking."

That's Laura Gundel. She's a staff scientist at Laurence Berkeley National Lab in California. What she means is that when people smoke inside a house or office or car, the walls and carpets and furniture act as a sort of giant nicotine sponge. The smell is bad enough. But what's worse is that the absorbed nicotine also reacts with common household chemicals like nitrous acid--with troubling results.

"We found it's very easy and fast for nicotine to react with nitrous acid and make specific kind of compounds that are carcinogens according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer."

So if you're some place where there's been a lot of smoking and you brush against a wall or sit on a sofa or even walk barefoot on the carpet, according to Gundle you're rubbing up against cancer-causing chemicals.

"We think the major potential risk is to people who spend a lot of time near the floor, particularly on a carpet that can embed a lot of dust, and those would be very young children. Typically a baby wearing a diaper has a lot of skin surface available to touch the floor, be rolling around, etc."

Once nicotine gets into walls and carpets, there's really no way of getting rid of it, short of ripping them out. So if you want to avoid third-hand smoke, Gundel says, stay away from places with that tell-tale smoky smell.

I'm Jeremy Shere

Additional Resources:

• Find out more about third-hand smoke from the BBC website.

Comments

Comments have been closed.