Third hand smoke: the other category of hazard from passive smoke

Abstract

A novel form of passive smoke is known as third hand smoke (THS). The meaning of third

hand smoke is defined as residual or aged tobacco smoke particles which are still adhere to

household surfaces such as floor, carpet, and clothes and may be resuspended back in the air.

Tobacco smoke particles can be deposited in the environment for a long time and traditional ways

of cleaning cannot eliminate pollutants from THS. Little is known about third hand smoke including

the adverse effects on health. At the present time, the important chemical from THS which is

definitely harmful to health is nicotine—one of well-known carcinogens. Small particles of nicotine

can bind to household surface and stay in the environment for a long time resulting in detrimental

health effects in long run. Exposure to third hand smoke can be harmful to people who live in the

environment that a smoker used to live or work at. No matter what a smoker is still living there or

not, the hazard of smoking is still there. The highest risk group is infants and children due to longer

indoor time that they spend in the house. Not many studies explored about THS at this moment.

However, most of the studies investigated only short term health effects of THS. One of the studies

revealed that nicotine from the textile can permeate through human skin and it did have toxicity

on fibroblasts and neurocytes. Moreover, it has acute vertebrate toxicity as well. Due to THS is long

term consequences of tobacco smoke; therefore, more research is needed to investigate deeply

about detrimental health effects of THS from both different exposure pathways and exposure

period. However, there is existing evidence that provides strong support on negative health effects

of active and passive smoke. In conclusion, to prevent and reduce tobacco smoke is the important

agenda that must be carried on continuously in order to reduce morbidity and mortality also

increase quality of life of the people in the society.

Keywords: Third hand smoke (TSH), tobacco, nicotine, infants and children