Legal News for Florida Personal Injury Attorneys. A new study demonstrates the dangers of thirdhand smoke.
Florida personal injury attorney alerts- study demonstrates health dangers of tobacco smoke exposure when combined with indoor air pollutant.
Palm Beach County, FL (News)—A recent study conducted by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory suggests dangerous carcinogens can form when nitrous acid, an indoor air pollutant, reacts with the nicotine in tobacco smoke residue. The information collected through this study was published on Monday, February 8, 2010, according to information provided by MercuryNews.com.
New studies are being conducted as a means of furthering awareness on the negative health effects of firsthand, secondhand, and thirdhand tobacco smoke exposure. Reports describe “thirdhand” smoke as “a thin layer of toxic substances from tobacco smoke that settles on surfaces long after cigarettes have been extinguished”. The study at hand demonstrates how nitrous acid, stemming from gas appliances, car engines, and tobacco smoke, can create potent carcinogens when exposed to nicotine left on surfaces.
According to a study published in the Pediatrics journal, 65 percent of non-smokers reportedly believed infants and children could face potential health dangers when exposed to tobacco smoke residue left on surfaces. On the other hand, only 43 percent of smokers agreed. Researchers in the Berkeley Laboratory allegedly discovered that “when nitrous acid in the air reacts with nicotine, tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs, are created. Unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke already contain TSNAs, which in 1989, the U.S. surgeon general listed among the carcinogens found in tobacco.” Although these carcinogens are already found in tobacco, levels of TSNAs were reportedly multiplied by 10 when exposed to the air chemical. Research shows that children are especially susceptible to the negative effects of thirdhand smoke since they can be physically exposed to household surfaces more frequently or more often than adults, which in a smoking environment, could be covered in harmful TSNAs.
More research into the harmful affects of thirdhand smoke are reported underway. The University of California’s Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program sponsored this particular study.
Legal News Reporter: Sandra Quinlan- Legal News for Florida Personal Injury Lawyers.