Has Anyone Here Been Exposed To Third-Hand Smoke?

We all heard about the dangers of second-hand smoke...now there is a new danger, according to experts: Third-Hand Smoke.

It's a term that doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston are using to describe the lingering smell that are left in some smoker's hair, clothing, cushions and carpeting. Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke. According to Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician in who heads the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York:

"The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke," he said. "There are carcinogens in this third-hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them."

It just seems that smokers can't catch a break. I don't smoke myself, but I don't look down on people who do. What do you think--it this a ligimate danger, or is it another way to guilt-trip smokers into qutting for good?

Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke.Hallenbeck77

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

[QUOTE="Hallenbeck77"]Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke.Oleg_Huzwog

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

[QUOTE="Oleg_Huzwog"]

[QUOTE="Hallenbeck77"]Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke.Hallenbeck77

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

I think the concept is solid. If you're smelling it, you're breathing it. I just roll my eyes whenever I see the words "just as harmful as".

I heard about this on the radio this morning. I actually think there's some truth about it. Ever wonder why cigar smoke lingers around so much? It's because it seeps into things and brings with it those harmful chemicals that endanger the smoker. I wouldn't a child of mine crawling on someone's carpet that has accumulated months and months of cigar smoke... :?JustPlainLucas

That's just plain disgusting to have your rugs/clothing/carpets reek of smoke. All the people I know who smoke know enough to actually clean & shampoo your rugs and such on a regular basis, and they always go outside the house to light up. Not just step outside the front door, but walk torward the street & smoke there. I know not everyone makes the effort to do so.

[QUOTE="Hallenbeck77"][QUOTE="Oleg_Huzwog"]

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

Oleg_Huzwog

I think the concept is solid. If you're smelling it, you're breathing it. I just roll my eyes whenever I see the words "just as harmful as".

wooow. i think it might possibly have an effect but it's mostly just more propaganda to mess with people's heads. i don't smoke but like you said, i won't look down upon someone who does. the effects that "third-hand smoke" has on someone is probably no worse than breathing in the polluted air of our planet.MrMC7992

I saw an X-files episode where this guy smoked cigarettes and the second hand smoke had beetle eggs in them and they would hatch in people who breathed the smoke :XMad_Banana

"I'm sorry, I can't shake your hand. Because I can smell that you've been smoking, and if I touch you I might get cancer."

"I'm sorry, You can't be here. Yes, I am aware that this is the DMV office and you are only here so that you can renew your license so that you can continue to drive to work in order to feed your hungry children. Unfortunately, you are a smoker. I can smell that you have smoked. So you can't be here, because you're giving everyone else cancer."

"Yes, I believe you when you say that you don't smoke. But you smell like you've been smoking. Maybe you once shook a smoker's hand, I don't know. But the point is, even though you have never smoked in your life, you smell like tobacco smoke TO ME. So you have to leave this restaurant right now, because you are giving everyone else cancer. Even though you are a nonsmoker who is militantly opposed to smoking."

I probably have, every time I go into a friends car, it always smelled like cigarettes and no one smoked at the time.

i wonder what fourth hand smoke will be...-xPANICx-

That'll be when looking at a smoker gives you cancer.

[QUOTE="-xPANICx-"]i wonder what fourth hand smoke will be...MrGeezer

That'll be when looking at a smoker gives you cancer.

i call bs.... Virus214

[QUOTE="Hallenbeck77"]Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke.Oleg_Huzwog

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

[QUOTE="Oleg_Huzwog"]

[QUOTE="Hallenbeck77"]Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke.Me2nice

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

Apparently, they're claiming it's just as harmful as second-hand smoke.Hallenbeck77

Such a claim seems every bit as far fetched as the bogus notion that second-hand smoke is every bit as harmful as first-hand.

Those last 4 words seem borderline defeatist, jandurin? :P too much OT? lolBiancaDK

I live in a house with a smoker so I get second and "third" hand smoke.

I'm not dead, can't be too bad.

[QUOTE="BiancaDK"]Those last 4 words seem borderline defeatist, jandurin? :P too much OT? lolJandurin

[QUOTE="Jandurin"][QUOTE="BiancaDK"]Those last 4 words seem borderline defeatist, jandurin? :P too much OT? lolBiancaDK

Atleast you know you took it too far. Saving me the breath of pointing it out to you. Problem is i like pointing out stuff for people, even if they themselves have pointed it out beforehand and even on numerous occations. So refrain from retrospection, Jandurin! im gonna stop trying to decypher what exactly you actually wrote and the meaning hereof, my eyes are watering reading it.BiancaDK

[QUOTE="BiancaDK"]Atleast you know you took it too far. Saving me the breath of pointing it out to you. Problem is i like pointing out stuff for people, even if they themselves have pointed it out beforehand and even on numerous occations. So refrain from retrospection, Jandurin! im gonna stop trying to decypher what exactly you actually wrote and the meaning hereof, my eyes are watering reading it.Jandurin

[QUOTE="Jandurin"][QUOTE="BiancaDK"]Atleast you know you took it too far. Saving me the breath of pointing it out to you. Problem is i like pointing out stuff for people, even if they themselves have pointed it out beforehand and even on numerous occations. So refrain from retrospection, Jandurin! im gonna stop trying to decypher what exactly you actually wrote and the meaning hereof, my eyes are watering reading it.BiancaDK