The Old Third-Hand Trick
On a Feb. 9, 2009, newscast, NBC’s Brian Williams reported that a new study shows that “third hand smoke” can cause cancer.
He did not cite the study, but merely quoted “a study.”
I did a little rummaging around on the Internet, Googling this and that. I found a study by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab saying that “potent carcinogens are formed when a common indoor air chemical reacts with third-hand smoke–the designation of the residue of tobacco smoke that clings to clothing, hair, skin and surfaces.”
“It is the first to find that nitrous acid, and indoor pollutant created by gas appliances among other things, reacts with nicotine found on surfaces.”
Actually the report was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The title is: Formation of carcinogens indoors by surface-mediated reactions of nicotine with nitrous acid, leading to potential third-hand smoke hazards.
The report was written by a group: Mohamad Sleimana, Lara A. Gundela, James F. Pankowb, Peyton Jacob IIIc, Brett C. Singera, and Hugo Destaillatsa.
Without going into all the details, which you can do for yourself at the NAS site, the report essentially says that smoking in your home will give you cancer when tobacco smoke interacts with common nitrous acid inside the home.
Nitrous acidcomes from unvented gas appliances. You can also get nitrous acid from vehicle engines. The nitrous acid fumes filter in from the engine into the passenger compartment.
Unvented gas appliances? Now, who in their right mind is going to have an unvented gas appliance in their home?
Don’t know about you, but I would be afraid to strike a match in a home where a gas appliance was unvented.
OK, let’s say you have an unvented gas appliance in your home, and you haven’t insulated the glove compartment to your truck to prevent leakage of nitrous acid from your truck engine. This is not Toyota, you know.
You smoke and I am assuming that you never roll down the windows in your truck. So, for years you ride in your truck without rolling down the windows. I don’t know why you would do that, but you did. You, my friend, are a gonner, according to the NAS authors.
Let’s take this one more step.
If I were you, I would not walk outside my house, or get out of my truck when you look at what you will be breathing from the very air around you:
Carbon monoxide
Nitrates
Sulfur dioxide
Ozone
Lead
Second-hand tobacco smoke
Particulate Matter
The pollutants come from The American Heart Association, not moi, so you know it is authoritative.
What is particulate matter? Glad you asked.
Particulate matter consists of: solid and liquid particles within the air. It can be generated from vehicle emissions, tire fragmentation and road dust, power generation and industrial combustion, smelting and other metal processing, construction and demolition activities, residential wood burning, windblown soil, pollens, molds, forest fires, volcanic emissions and sea spray. These particles vary considerably in size, composition and origin.
Again, this is from the AHA, not moi.
” The oxidation of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere is linked with the formation of various particulate compounds, including acid sulfates,” says a study on air pollutants by the American Heart Association.
What does that mean? Well the AHA quoted the Annual Reviews of Public Health, which found that a 1 percent increase in total mortality for each 10 mg/m3 increase in particulate matter.
“Respiratory mortality increased 3.4 percent and cardiovascular mortality increased 1.4 percent,” the public health article says.
“More recent research suggests that one possible link between acute exposure to particulate matter and sudden death may be related to sudden increases in heart rate or changes in heart rate variability,” from breathing in particulates while you stroll in your front yard.
The AHA also quotes the Environmental Protection Agency on particulates:
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has declared that ‘tens of thousands of people die each year from breathing tiny particles in the environment.’
“A recent report released by the nonprofit Health Effects Institute in Cambridge, Mass., agrees with the EPA assessment. This study was reviewed by Science magazine and clearly shows that death rates in the 90 largest U.S. cities rise by 0.5 percent with only a tiny increase – 10 micrograms (mcg) per cubic meter — in particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter. This finding is similar to those of other studies throughout the world. The case is stronger with this study, because it eliminated several factors that could confound the interpretation of the data, such as temperature and other pollutants.”
So, what does all this add up to?
Glad you asked.
You buys your ticket, you takes your chances.
Life, my friend, is a gamble. There are risks, and then there is stupidity. And as stand-up comic Ron White says, you can’t fix stupid.
You are more likely to blow yourself up with an unvented gas appliance in your home than you are to blow out your lungs from third-hand smoke.
And, uh, has anyone ever heard of washing clothes, washing your hair in the shower, painting walls, scrubbing table tops, counter tops and floors and not lighting matches around unvented gas appliances?
Selah