Cigarette Smoke Really is Hazardous

The New York Times has an article about "third hand smoke," the stuff that clings to clothes and hair of smokers, the stuff you smell when a smoker enters the room or you walk into a motel room in which a smoker has been staying.

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.

Today people are beginning to understand cigarette smoke is harmful to those nearby.

Some 95 percent of nonsmokers and 84 percent of smokers agreed with the statement that “inhaling smoke from a parent’s cigarette can harm the health of infants and children.”

The survey found a different result when people were asked if the air in rooms where smokers were present yesterday was harmful.

Only 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers agreed with that statement, which researchers interpreted as acknowledgement of the risks of third-hand smoke.

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.

How much more information must come to light before tobacco is banned as a serious health hazard in this nation? The evidence of risk is overwhelming without a single positive point to be offered.

Peace.