Smokers Are Jokers . . . They're Not Fooling Anyone But Themselves

Third-hand smoke

Celia Milne

Does the person beside you smell like smoke? The nasty odour that clings to smokers’ clothes when they get in the subway now has a name: Third-hand smoke.

And this invisible stuff is bad for our health.

Third-hand smoke is essentially the residue left on surfaces after the cigarette is extinguished. It lurks on sofas, clothes, carpeting, food, hair and even skin. It can make people wheeze or make their throats scratchy. And it has a stronger effect on children than adults.

“Understanding that third-hand smoke harms infants and children may help insure completely smoke-free homes and cars,” Dr. Jonathan Winickoff from the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston told Metro. “They’re getting a higher dose when in contact with surfaces that are coated with these toxic layers.”

Dr. Winickoff and colleagues recently conducted a study that showed 65 per cent of non-smokers but only 43 per cent of smokers believe third-hand smoke harms children. Results of the study were published online in the journal Pediatrics on Dec. 29, 2008. Media outlets around the world picked up the new expression used in the study: “third-hand smoke.”

The risks of first-hand and second-hand smoke are well-established. Smoking accounts for about 85 per cent of new cases of lung cancer. There are 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, and 50 of them are carcinogenic.

While the health dangers of third-hand smoke haven’t been studied in detail, second-hand smoke exposure increases your chances of developing lung cancer by 25 per cent and heart disease by 10 per cent.

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First hand, second hand, third hand . . . when will smokers realize that they're not doing anyone a favour, especially themselves?

I hate smoking with a passion. Not only is it severely damaging to your health but it affects the health of those around you. Although second-hand and third-hand smoking may not be as harmful to one's health as being the one to smoke, studies continue to show that being around a smoker is just as bad, if not worse, than smoking itself. And parents who do this around children are not giving them the proper chance to develop. (I'm glad that Ontario has passed a new law banning people from smoking in a car with children under 16. Even if a parent has their windows open, smoking still makes the air inside the car 13 times dirtier than the air outside.) As if it weren't bad enough being in a house that's filled with the smell of cigarettes stuck onto everything, including your skin and clothes, it is continuing to damage our health.

There is absolutely nothing good about smoking and the benefits from quitting far outweigh the temporary soothing effect of the nicotine. I can go on and on as my hate for smoking is quite strong. I'm sure we all know the effects of smoking and there are many ways to quit the habit.

If any smokers happen to be reading this, I urge you to read The Easy Way To Stop Smoking by Alan Carr.