Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Thirdhand smoke? Oh, brother.
SDSU researchers warn of long-lasting toxins left by cigarettes
While the public has long been aware of the dangers of smoking and passive exposure to secondhand smoke, researchers at San Diego State University are raising a call for vigilance regarding the perils posed by thirdhand smoke, or residues left on surfaces that may not have been exposed to cigarettes in some time.
"Homes become reservoirs of tobacco smoke pollutants," says SDSU psychologist Georg Matt in a recent university press release. "These volatile compounds soak into the drywall; gypsum is like a bottomless pit for these toxins. Carpets are tremendous reservoirs."
Matt became interested in thirdhand smoke years ago, when he found certain byproducts of cigarettes in the children of participants in a smoking-cessation study, even though the parents no longer smoked or allowed others to do so near their kids. He's joined by environmental health scientist Penelope Quintana and environmental chemist Eunha Hoh in research that seeks a determination to what extent contamination from past smoking can affect current inhabitants of a closed space.
"Cigarette smoke is known to contain thousands of chemicals, and these chemicals get deposited onto surfaces," says Hoh. "The levels of these chemicals may be quite low in thirdhand smoke residue, but they are dangerous when you have chronic exposure."
Researchers warn that vacuuming carpets and dusting walls isn't enough to rid a home of contaminants from smoke. Even painting walls, they fear, may not be sufficient.
In order to safeguard children against the hazards of third-hand smoke, Matt recommends avoiding smoking indoors or in cars, staying in a smoke-free hotel rather than in the home of smokers when on out-of-town visits, requesting smokers wash their hands or, preferably, change their clothes before interaction, and avoiding buying or renting housing where the previous occupants may have smoked. Although e-cigarettes, an increasingly-popular tobacco alternative, do not emit many of the known carcinogens in cigarette smoke, they still contain nicotine and thus Matt recommends the same precautions be taken around users of such devices.
The group plans to study up to 200 low-income homes over the next three years in an attempt to learn more about affordable and effective means of eradicating existing smoke damage within residences.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Thirdhand smoke? Oh, brother.
SDSU researchers warn of long-lasting toxins left by cigarettes
Thirdhand smoke? Oh, brother.
SDSU researchers warn of long-lasting toxins left by cigarettes
While the public has long been aware of the dangers of smoking and passive exposure to secondhand smoke, researchers at San Diego State University are raising a call for vigilance regarding the perils posed by thirdhand smoke, or residues left on surfaces that may not have been exposed to cigarettes in some time.
"Homes become reservoirs of tobacco smoke pollutants," says SDSU psychologist Georg Matt in a recent university press release. "These volatile compounds soak into the drywall; gypsum is like a bottomless pit for these toxins. Carpets are tremendous reservoirs."
Matt became interested in thirdhand smoke years ago, when he found certain byproducts of cigarettes in the children of participants in a smoking-cessation study, even though the parents no longer smoked or allowed others to do so near their kids. He's joined by environmental health scientist Penelope Quintana and environmental chemist Eunha Hoh in research that seeks a determination to what extent contamination from past smoking can affect current inhabitants of a closed space.
"Cigarette smoke is known to contain thousands of chemicals, and these chemicals get deposited onto surfaces," says Hoh. "The levels of these chemicals may be quite low in thirdhand smoke residue, but they are dangerous when you have chronic exposure."
Researchers warn that vacuuming carpets and dusting walls isn't enough to rid a home of contaminants from smoke. Even painting walls, they fear, may not be sufficient.
In order to safeguard children against the hazards of third-hand smoke, Matt recommends avoiding smoking indoors or in cars, staying in a smoke-free hotel rather than in the home of smokers when on out-of-town visits, requesting smokers wash their hands or, preferably, change their clothes before interaction, and avoiding buying or renting housing where the previous occupants may have smoked. Although e-cigarettes, an increasingly-popular tobacco alternative, do not emit many of the known carcinogens in cigarette smoke, they still contain nicotine and thus Matt recommends the same precautions be taken around users of such devices.
The group plans to study up to 200 low-income homes over the next three years in an attempt to learn more about affordable and effective means of eradicating existing smoke damage within residences.
Comments