Third-hand smoking, even less well-known than passive smoking

“Third-hand smoke” or “third-hand smoking” or “passive smoking” refers to exposure in a room or vehicle to chemicals from tobacco smoke that have attached to clothing, walls, furniture, carpets, cushions, hair, skin and other materials while the cigarette was being smoked and are released into the air over the following days and weeks.

Toxic substances, including nicotine, attach to the skin and clothing of smokers even when they smoke outside. They follow smokers into the home and spread around them. Toxic substances from tobacco can linger on surfaces of objects for weeks or months, and ventilating a room with fans or opening windows is not enough to remove all of these residues. Residents are exposed to these chemicals by touching contaminated surfaces or breathing in the toxins released from these surfaces. Third-hand smoke residues pose a significant potential health risk to nonsmokers. Infants and children are more exposed than adults through contact with surfaces of furniture and clothing; when they crawl, play, or snuggle with their parents, they tend to touch objects around them, and thus both ingest and inhale these dangerous particles, which enter their bodies.