According to a recent Harvard study, published in this month’s journal of Pediatrics, there isn’t just first-hand and second-hand smoke, now there is another kind of smoke to fear: third-hand smoke. As the New York Times described it, it’s “the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after smoke has cleared from a room.” It’s that smell that non-smokers can distinctly pick out when the go to a hotel room that has been declared a “non-smoking room” but they know it recently has been occupied by a smoker.

So what’s the big deal anyway? So there are these lingering odors that remain? As long as children and other non-smokers aren’t present for the actual puffing away–are they actually at risk for unhealthy exposures? The simple and unequivocal answer is: YES.

As the New York Times explained:

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.

That’s enough for me to say: third-hand smoke can kill. And to also argue that smoking isn’t safe for anyone, anywhere. It’s effects are long-lasting and deadly.

Summer Johnson, PhD