'Third-Hand' Smoke -- the Dust Finally Settles
Cigarette Chemicals That Linger on Clothes Might Cause Harm, New Study Finds
Support for Home Smoking Ban
Households with children in the home, and households without smokers in the home, were each three times more likely to enforce a strict no-smoking ban.
As might be expected, nonsmokers who responded to the survey strongly supported such proscription -- these individuals were 13 times more likely to fight for a tobacco-free household.
White individuals and college-educated individuals were two times and four times more likely to favor such bans, respectively.
The researchers were surprised, however, that individuals who believed in the harm of secondhand smoke were not necessarily behind banning smoking from their households.
In addition, having community policies prohibiting smoking in bars and restaurants had no impact on household bans among individuals in those communities.
The authors point out that exposure to low levels of tobacco smoke affects the neurological development of children, leading in some cases to reduced reading and thinking skills.
Additionally, children are the most vulnerable to ingesting poisonous tobacco dust, taking in two times the amount of this dust compared with adults. Think about what children do -- they crawl on the floor, suck their fingers, mouth toys.
And they breathe in the particles that have settled on their parents' clothes. This certainly puts snuggling up close to your children in a new light.
How to Address Tobacco Dust
So what can be done?
Intrusive as it might sound, many experts are arguing for laws that would ban smoking in homes, just as laws have banned the use of lead paint indoors. Such laws can have an effect in protecting children.
But the effect is going to be largest when more and more people become aware of the hidden danger of third-hand smoke.
I have always told parents who smoke that tobacco smoke clings to their clothing and home furnishings -- and have usually received a blank stare back, like, "Are you from Mars, Dr. Spangler?"
Maybe now the stare will be one of recognition of the harm to which they are exposing their children.
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