Third-hand smoke is a relatively new term for an old phenomenon. It is tobacco smoke contamination that remains after the cigarette has been extinguished. It’s that nasty smell that hangs on a smoker’s hair and clothing and breath, that lingers on drapery and carpets, that fouls car interiors. It’s the yellowish coating that clings to walls, windows, and furnishings where smokers live.
A recent New York Times article notes,
“Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic.”
Think about it for a minute. Layers are deposited and built up, cigarette after cigarette, day after day, month after month. Each layer contains all of the toxins in cigarette smoke, and as the layers build up, the toxins are concentrated and collected together into a sticky residue that contains much higher doses of poisons than even cigarettes themselves!
Now think about it for another minute. As a smoker, the toxic residue that you see and smell on clothes, furniture, carpets, walls and windows – that is the visible manifestation of what you are asking your body to process and filter and try to dispose of every single day. Your lungs. Your kidneys. Your liver. Your heart. All working overtime to clean up the gunk. Isn’t it time to quit? Get help and read more at http://www.whyquit.com/.
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