'The invisible enemy': Study finds cigarette smoke lingers in a room for up to 9 years
2025-03-05 14:24:53
TiranaPost
Consumption two more tym.
The concept of smoking is familiar to everyone. But there are other forms such as second-hand smoking or passive smoking, where the person does not smoke but stands near people who smoke. While third-hand (tertiary) smoking refers to the harmful substances that remain on surfaces, clothing, furniture, curtains after smoking in a closed environment.
Where is the problem?
Unlike smoke, which is visible, we cannot see the harmful substances that remain on the surface after smoking. This makes it even more dangerous because we cannot avoid it.
A study has revealed a high presence of these harmful substances in the home of a person who had quit smoking 9 years ago.
University of San Diego professor George Matt, co-author of the study, states that the presence of tobacco smoke proves that there are dangerous tobacco residues in the room, even though there may not be an unpleasant odor in the room.
The lead researcher on this project, Dr Hugo Destelejs, confirms that the daily dose of exposure to these third-hand wastes can be very high because in addition to inhaling smoke, the substances can also be absorbed through the skin. Through constant contact with the skin and mouth, the possibilities for chronic exposure to these wastes increase. This is often visible in the dust or the color that the walls of the room acquire.
How to clean an environment from hazardous waste?
To clean a home, restaurant, workspace, or other space from the presence of thirdhand smoke, Dr. Rachel Rekord emphasizes that it is best to remove furniture, decorations, curtains, wallpaper, and all other furnishings that can easily absorb smoke. This drastic measure is suggested because airing out, washing, and vacuuming the room do not remove these substances.
After these radical changes, smoking should not be allowed in the room so that smoke does not touch these surfaces again.
For many smokers, this can be very difficult, especially if the person has a morning routine where they want to drink coffee and a cigarette indoors. Given that smokers smoke mainly because of nicotine, many of them can switch to less harmful alternatives such as smokeless devices that heat tobacco. Such devices do not produce tobacco smoke, but simply an aerosol. In this way, the tobacco smoke that is released from combustion is completely eliminated. Also, the presence of harmful and potentially harmful substances is reduced by up to 95% because these products release an aerosol instead of tobacco smoke. The aerosol does not remain on clothing, furniture, walls and disappears very quickly.
