{"id":8161,"date":"2010-02-09T17:15:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-09T17:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/study-%e2%80%9cthird-hand-smoke%e2%80%9d-sticks-around-produces-new-carcinogens-80beats\/"},"modified":"2010-02-09T17:15:46","modified_gmt":"2010-02-09T17:15:46","slug":"study-%e2%80%9cthird-hand-smoke%e2%80%9d-sticks-around-produces-new-carcinogens-80beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/study-%e2%80%9cthird-hand-smoke%e2%80%9d-sticks-around-produces-new-carcinogens-80beats.php","title":{"rendered":"Study: \u201cThird-Hand Smoke\u201d Sticks Around & Produces New Carcinogens | 80beats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"smoke\"You might not be a smoker<\/a> yourself, but hanging around people who are smoking can cause you to inhale noxious cigarette fumes. For years, scientists have cautioned against the ill-effects of such second-hand smoke. Now they’re warning about the dangers of “third-hand smoke”—the chemical traces that cling to a smoker, and that are left behind in a room where someone has been smoking.<\/p>

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) [Scientific American<\/a><\/em>]. <\/span>The study<\/a> (pdf) was <\/span><\/span>published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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<\/em><\/span><\/span>The study suggests that even if a smoker puffs outside, some smoke swirls and settles in clothing and hair and is brought back into the building. With smoking inside, the left-over nicotine residue settles on surfaces like furniture, carpets, and curtains, where it can mix with common gas and turn into the carcinogenic TSNAs. Says study coauthor Hugo Destaillats<\/a>: “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…. And we found that such emissions do give rise to new pollutants when they react with non-cigarette compounds found indoors” [BusinessWeek<\/a><\/em>].<\/span><\/p>

To study how the carcinogenic compounds were created, scientists used samples from the glove compartment of a pick-up truck whose driver smoked in the truck regularly. They also studied a <\/span>cellulose-containing paper similar to a carpet or drape and let it absorb nicotine from cigarette smoke. They then put this paper in a chamber containing nitrous acid and studied the reaction between nicotine and the nitrous acid.<\/span><\/span> In both the lab and in the truck, the reaction between nicotine and nitrous acid produced substantial amounts of three types of toxic compounds…<\/em>. All three compounds belonged to a group called nitrosamines, which are known to prompt tumor growth [Discovery News<\/a>].<\/span><\/p>

The researchers say with so many toxic compounds, young infants could be at a risk as they crawl around on rugs and come into contact with dust. However, they also caution that there needs to be more research into third-hand smoke, and note that the study doesn’t indicate that homes and couches that smell of smoke could potentially cause cancer. To deal with third-hand smoke, researchers recommend avoiding smoking in closed spaces like homes and cars. <\/span>Also, in enclosed spaces that have seen plenty of puffs over the years, they suggest replacing furniture, carpet and even wallboard to cut down on the amount of TSNA exposure <\/span>[Scientific American<\/a><\/em>].<\/span><\/p>

Related Content:
80beats: Even Discreet, Conscientious Smokers Leave a Trail of “Third-Hand Smoke”<\/a>
80beats: Electronic Cigarettes Not a Safe Alternative to Conventional Cigs<\/a>
DISCOVER: Smoking and Ethnicity<\/a>
DISCOVER: By The Numbers: Smoke Gets in Your Hair<\/a>
DISCOVER: 54: R-Rated Films Tempt Teenagers to Smoke<\/a><\/p>

Image: flickr\/SuperFantastic<\/a><\/em><\/p>

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You might not be a smoker yourself, but hanging around people who are smoking can cause you to inhale noxious cigarette fumes. For years, scientists have cautioned against the ill-effects of such second-hand smoke. Now they’re warning about the dangers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}