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VIDEO: How dangerous is third-hand smoke? 

You've probably heard plenty of reports on the dangers posed by secondhand smoke. But could third-hand smoke be dangerous as well?

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Even 'third-hand' smoke is dangerous... especially to children  

The health risks of both puffing on a cigarette and second-hand smoke are well known. But a new study has found even 'third-hand' smoke is hazardous.

Researchers discovered tobacco smoke residues found on everyday surfaces react with molecules in indoor air to form potent cancer-causing chemicals.

Crawling toddlers can be exposed to a toxic brew of gases and particles that cling to a smoker's clothes, hair, cars and furniture long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room.

Babies and toddlers are more at risk from 'third-hand' smoke because they breathe more quickly and brush on more surfaces

Environmental chemist Dr Hugo Destaillats and colleagues showed a dangerous reaction between nicotine and a pollutant known as HONO (nitrous acid) which is common in all buildings.

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• Smoking not good for the brain - study  

THE tobacco industry worked for two decades to skew research into smoking and Alzheimer's disease, to promote the wrong belief it could prevent the degenerative condition, a review of research has found.

US-based scientists have reviewed more than 40 research papers published since 1984, to highlight those with industry links which also suggested smoking could be good for the brain.

A quarter of the papers were found to have industry influence - either through direct funding or using researchers who were also consultants to the industry or who had other ties.

In many cases these relationships were not disclosed, according to the analysis, which found industry-linked papers dotted through the scientific literature up to 2003.

Professor Jurgen Gotz, from the University of Sydney's Brain & Mind Research Institute, welcomed the review . . .

The beneficial claim continues to circulate via the internet and occasionally it pops up in the mainstream press - including in a 2008 article published in the US' top selling Oprah Magazine.

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Lawmakers Discuss Smoking Ban in All Public Places in Missouri 

Robert martin says he's pretty much married to his nightclub. He even lives right above it. He's owned Nathan P. Murphy's for 28 years, but his relationship with the club almost cost him his life.

"Many of nights I would crawl out of my apartment and gasp for air," says Martin.

Martin's not a smoker, but he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a common lung disease associated with smoking.

"When the doctor told me to change my environment or I would die, it took me five seconds to make that decision," says Martin.

So for the last two years, he's run a smoke free setup.

"It's been overwhelmingly supported even by smokers," says Martin.

Some Missouri lawmakers are trying to make all public establishments smoke-free, citing risks from secondhand smoke. . . .

The debate is bound to be heated at the state capital. But for Martin, it was a choice he had to make. And because of that, he's now able sit among his customers in the place he loves.

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Grandma breathes easier in smoke-free building  

The high rate of asthma typically found in kids in housing projects is among the factors spurring Boston to ban smoking in public housing.

"You have young children who are living in households with smokers and have asthma or are at risk of developing asthma," said Doug Brugge, a professor at Tufts School of Medicine and author of a 2003 study of Dorchester and South Boston projects that found elevated childhood asthma rates. "Clearly that is not a good thing for those children."

Mold, poor ventiliation and pests also exacerbate asthma, but second-hand smoke is a main contributer, he said.

Meena Carr, 68, who lives in Roslindale's Washington-Beech development, said smoke from other apartments triggered asthma attacks in her grandson, Malik Carr, 9, until she convinced the building to go smoke-free.

"They don't have a choice," she said of children like Malik.

There has been no widescale study of asthma rates of children in Boston public housing, but public-health experts say rates are higher than in the general population.

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• Suit over secondhand smoke targets real estate broker 

Alyssa Burrage says she was smoked out of her new $405,000 condominium.

Burrage, a 32-year-old advertising company employee with a history of asthma, had smelled cigarettes when she first visited the bright, parlor-level condo in Boston's South End in 2006 with her real estate broker. But the broker, she alleges, assured her that the owner must be a smoker and the stench would disappear.

After Burrage moved into the Milford Street brick row house, she says, she discovered the secondhand smoke was coming from one of two men living in the condo below. The men and the condo association refused to fix the problem, she adds, and she had to move out.

Today, in what tobacco law specialists call one of the first lawsuits of its kind to go to trial in Massachusetts, a jury is scheduled to decide whether Burrage's real estate broker is liable for damages. . . .

Neither the real estate broker, Joseph DeAngelo, nor his lawyer would comment on the case. In a joint court filing summarizing the case, DeAngelo and his employer, Gibson Sotheby's International Realty, deny that Burrage questioned him about smoke in the condo. . . .

Burrage also sued the two men in the downstairs condominium - Edward J. Allan, who owns the two-story garden-level apartment, and Michael Schofield, the smoker who has lived with Allan for 13 years - and the condominium association. All three defendants settled with Burrage out of court yesterday

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Thirdhand smoke forms indoor carcinogens, Lawrence Berkeley lab scientists report 

A common indoor air chemical reacts with residues of tobacco smoke clinging to clothing, skin and surfaces to form potent carcinogens, researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory reported in a study published Monday.

A few years ago, researchers began paying closer attention to the potential health effects of "thirdhand smoke," which is a thin layer of toxic substances from tobacco smoke that settles on surfaces long after cigarettes have been extinguished.

The scientists, however, are the first to find that nitrous acid, an indoor air pollutant created by gas appliances, vehicle engines and tobacco smoke, reacts with nicotine found on surfaces.

"We want to make people aware that there's a potential hazard from thirdhand smoke that has not been recognized before," said Lara Gundel, one of the authors of the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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'Third-hand smoke' could damage health 

Lingering residue from tobacco smoke which clings to upholstery, clothing and the skin releases cancer-causing agents, work in PNAS journal shows.

Berkeley scientists in the US ran lab tests and found "substantial levels" of toxins on smoke-exposed material.

They say while banishing smokers to outdoors cuts second-hand smoke, residues will follow them back inside and this "third-hand smoke" may harm.

Opponents called it a laughable term designed to frighten people unduly.

The scientists say nicotine stains on clothing, furniture and wallpaper can react with a common indoor pollutant to generate dangerous chemicals called tobacco-specific nitrosamines or TSNAs. . . .

er understand what threat, if any, TSNAs pose.

Amanda Sandford of Action on Smoking and Health said: "The harmful effects of second-hand smoke are already well-established but this study adds a new dimension to the dangers associated with smoking and provides further evidence of the need to protect children, in particular, from exposure to tobacco smoke.

"The study shows that the residue of smoke on surfaces represents a potential risk for cancer but so far we don't know how big at risk."

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, remained sceptical.

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Carcinogens form from third-hand smoke 

Nicotine in third-hand smoke, the residue from tobacco smoke that clings to virtually all surfaces long after a cigarette has been extinguished, reacts with the common indoor air pollutant nitrous acid to produce dangerous carcinogens. This new potential health hazard was revealed in a multi-institutional study led by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

"The burning of tobacco releases nicotine in the form of a vapor that adsorbs strongly onto indoor surfaces, such as walls, floors, carpeting, drapes and furniture. Nicotine can persist on those materials for days, weeks and even months. Our study shows that when this residual nicotine reacts with ambient nitrous acid it forms carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines or TSNAs," says Hugo Destaillats, a chemist with the Indoor Environment Department of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division. "TSNAs are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke."

Destaillats is the corresponding author of a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Co-authoring the PNAS paper with Destaillats were Mohamad Sleiman, Lara Gundel and Brett Singer, all with Berkeley Lab's Indoor Environment Department, plus James Pankow with Portland State University, and Peyton Jacob with the University of California, San Francisco.

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Even third-hand smoke carries carcinogens: study  

Old tobacco smoke does more than simply make a room smell stale -- it can leave cancer-causing toxins behind, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Health

They found cancer-causing agents called tobacco-specific nitrosamines stick to a variety of surfaces, where they can get into dust or be picked up on the fingers. Children and infants are the most likely to pick them up, the team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California reported.

"These findings raise concerns about exposures to the tobacco smoke residue that has been recently dubbed 'third-hand smoke'," the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, available here

They suggested a good clean-up could help remove these potentially harmful chemicals and said their findings suggest other airborne toxins may also be found on surfaces.

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Thirdhand Smoke Forms Cancer-Causing Residue Indoors That Lasts 

Tobacco smoke contamination lingering on furniture, clothes and other surfaces, dubbed thirdhand smoke, may react with indoor air chemicals to form potential cancer-causing substances, a study found.

After exposing a piece of paper to smoke, researchers found the sheet had levels of newly formed carcinogens that were 10 times higher after three hours in the presence of an indoor air chemical called nitrous acid commonly emitted by household appliances or cigarette smoke. That means people may face a risk from indoor tobacco smoke in a way that's never been recognized before, said one of the study's authors, Lara Gundel.

Previous research has shown that secondhand smoke, which is inhaled by nonsmokers exposed to fumes from cigarettes, raises the risk of cancer and heart disease. More research is needed to identify the potential health hazards of thirdhand smoke, Gundel said. Overall, tobacco use causes 20 percent of all cancer deaths, according to the study published in today's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We have considered that nicotine on surfaces has been pretty benign up to this point. It turns out we shouldn't say that now," said Gundel, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, in a Feb. 5 telephone interview. "People can be exposed to toxins in tobacco smoke in a way that's never been recognized before."

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Scientists Identify New Danger From Tobacco Smoke 

Here's yet another reason to book a nonsmoking hotel room.

Scientists have long known that the residue from cigarette smoke clings to surfaces for weeks and even months. Now there is new research indicating that the film left by burning tobacco, when exposed to a chemical often found in the air, forms a brew of potent carcinogens that can coat clothing, dust particles and even human skin.

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Formation of carcinogens indoors by surface-mediated reactions of nicotine with nitrous acid, leading to potential thirdhand smoke hazards  

This study shows that residual nicotine from tobacco smoke sorbed to indoor surfaces reacts with ambient nitrous acid (HONO) to form carcinogenic tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). Substantial levels of TSNAs were measured on surfaces inside a smoker’s vehicle. Laboratory experiments using cellulose as a model indoor material yielded a > 10-fold increase of surface-bound TSNAs when sorbed secondhand smoke was exposed to 60 ppbv HONO for 3 hours. In both cases we identified 1-(N-methyl-N-nitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridinyl)-4-butanal, a TSNA absent in freshly emitted tobacco smoke, as the major product. The potent carcinogens 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridinyl)-1-butanone and N-nitroso nornicotine were also detected. Time-course measurements revealed fast TSNA formation, with up to 0.4% conversion of nicotine. Given the rapid sorption and persistence of high levels of nicotine on indoor surfaces—including clothing and human skin—this recently identified process represents an unappreciated health hazard through dermal exposure, dust inhalation, and ingestion. These findings raise concerns about exposures to the tobacco smoke residue that has been recently dubbed “thirdhand smoke.” Our work highlights the importance of reactions at indoor interfaces, particularly those involving amines and NOx/HONO cycling, with potential health impacts.

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'Third-Hand Smoke' Could Be Troublesome, Too  

Tobacco smoke residue found on indoor surfaces -- so-called "third-hand smoke" -- can interact with airborne compounds to form new, potentially cancer-causing substances, research suggests.

Details about the potential role such third-hand smoke might play and what health concerns it might create remain unclear, however, awaiting further study.

"We're talking here about compounds that were not originally emitted by cigarettes but that may form indoors as a result of the residue that settles indoors, after smoking, which then mixes with indoor chemistry," explained Hugo Destaillats, a chemist in the indoor environment department of Berkeley National Laboratory in California and a co-author of the study.

"It's this third-hand smoke residue that is the source of the smells that we all easily perceive in a room or a car where cigarettes have been smoked, as a consequence of such places being coated with cigarette emissions," he said. "And we found that such emissions do give rise to new pollutants when they react with non-cigarette compounds found indoors."

The findings are published in the Feb. 8 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Observations: Third-hand smoke contains carcinogens too, study says 

Anyone walking into a smoker's abode can tell you that the traces of tobacco use don't vanish when a cigarette or cigar is extinguished. But just what happens to this "third-hand" smoke once the air has cleared--and can it still be harmful?

A team of researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that remnants of a smoke don't just inertly settle onto surfaces, they can react with a common gas (nitrous acid, which is emitted from gas appliances and vehicles, among other sources) to create carcinogenic compounds known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs). The group reported the findings in a study published online February 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

These "TSNAs are among the most broadly acting and potent carcinogens present in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke," Hugo Destaillats, a chemist at the lab's Indoor Environment Department and coauthor of the paper, said in a prepared statement.

Second-hand smoke itself contains TSNAs, but the presence of nitrous acid in an environment can increase their numbers in the hours after smoking has ceased.

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