Third Hand Smoke (Lingering in Clothing, Furniture, and Carpets): Toxic to Children
It’s easy for me as a teacher to tell whose parents smoke. All it takes is one walk over to the coat area, where the fumes linger in the classroom. Or when I am working one on one with a student, crunching numbers in math. The smell always makes my stomach turn, then I feel overwhelmed with sadness for the child.
Smoke on clothing, carpets and furniture is much more than a nasty smell, however. According to the New York Times, the smoke is a toxic brew of “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.”
Researchers have labeled it “third hand smoke.” What exactly is it? According to the Scientific American, “”Third-hand smoke is tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette has been extinguished,” says Jonathan Winickoff, a pediatrician at the Dana–Farber/Harvard Cancer Center in Boston and author of a study on the new phenomenon published in the journal Pediatrics.”
