Quote:
Cigarette smoke gases and particles that cling to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, has been called “third-hand smoke.” The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.
Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in the January 2009 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic.
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Really? Seriously? hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, etc, and POLONIUM!????
Can anyone tell me how carbon monoxide gas can cling to a carpet and kill an infant?
Do these people really assume that every soft surface in a home is so clean and sterile that it poses no danger, unless it has third hand smoke on it?
There are people who will honest to god buy into this. Apple has a policy that they will refuse to do service, even warranty service, on equipment from a smoking environment. How long will it be before companies start firing employees because they show up for work smelling like smoke?
When I first heard about this quite a few years ago, I remember posting that we're in for a real world of hurt when the zealots take after this idea, and here it is. An advertisement was put in the local birdcage liner with essentially this same document, telling people to stop smoking because thirdhand smoke is killing people.