A cigarette's ingredients are not only dangerous through smoking and passive smoking. Being exposed to "third-hand" smoke, for instance through deposits in house dust, can increase the risk of cancer, according to a joint British and Spanish study published in "Environmental International".
Researchers from the University of York and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona) collected dust samples from private homes occupied by both smokers and non-smokers, looking for carcinogen N-nitrosamines and tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) in the dust samples.
They found that the cancer risks exceeded the limit recommended by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in three quarters of smokers' homes and two thirds of non-smokers' homes. The maximum risk predicted from the third-hand smoke levels in a smoker occupied home equated to one extra cancer case per one thousand population exposed.
"The risks of tobacco exposure do not end when a cigarette is extinguished," said lead researcher Jaqueline Hamilton from the University of York. "The TSNAs concentrations found in smoke-free homes would suggest that TSNAs formed in smoking environments can persist for extended periods, possibly due to partitioning to ambient particles, and subsequently be transported into non-smokers' homes from outside," said co-author Noelia Ramirez.
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