Active and passive smoking is joined by a new health hazard, the so-called third-hand smoke, revealed by researchers at Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, the US.
When you often smoke inside a house or a car, even if you let enough fresh air in, nicotine clings to indoor surfaces – walls, carpeting, drapes. This residual nicotine is not a carcinogen by itself, but it reacts with other substances, eventually producing carcinogenic nitrosamines. Nitrosamines are especially hazardous to babies who inevitably crawl on the floor, touch things and try to put them in the mouth. Smokey clothes are also a source of danger. It raises questions about safety of e-cigarettes that produce nicotine in the form of vapor instead of smoke.
Source of the image: photl.com.
