Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast: https://youtu.be/DMRmeoFeVUg We know all about the dangers of second-hand smoke, those clouds of toxic fumes emanating from cigarettes, cigars, and pipe bowls.  Now a study from the University of Cincinatti and the Cincinatti Children’s Hospital hone in on the vapors that waft up from those yellow stains on walls, ceilings, carpets, upholstery and, yes, the fingers of smokers themselves.  We call these third hand smoke. The investigators measured the levels of nicotine on the hands of children exposed to these 3rd hand sources but not to parental smoking directly, and these children had the same levels of nicotine as an indirect measure of all toxic chemicals as those kids directly exposed to cigarette smoke. Also know that these poisonous chemicals accumulate.  The children under 2 years had average hand nicotine levels of 69 ng, and that figure shot up 2.5 times by age 4 years.  The nicotine levels detected were a function of the number of cigarettes smoked by their parents and caregivers.  Even mo