(ORDO NEWS) — Everyone knows that smoking is harmful to human health – we are told about this from everywhere, there are even warnings on cigarette packs.
Also, society is well informed about the dangers of passive smoking, because it has been scientifically proven that inhaling cigarette smoke while being near a smoking person also harms us.
But not everyone knows about the existence of “tertiary smoking” – this term means the negative impact on a person of air or clothing that was once contaminated with tobacco smoke.
There is still little talk about tertiary smoking because its harmfulness has not yet been fully proven.
However, recently scientists conducted an experiment and corrected the situation. So, what can be dangerous tertiary smoking and is it possible to limit its negative effect?
What is tertiary smoking
Usually, the term “tertiary smoking” means a long stay of people without bad habits in a room that has been exposed to tobacco smoke for a long time.
A person can be exposed to tertiary smoking by renting accommodation from a smoker, getting into a smoker’s car, and simply going into public places.
In one of the previous articles, we already talked about the fact that the hazardous substances that make up cigarette smoke are even in rooms with a strict ban on smoking.
This was proven in a study in which scientists studied the air in a German cinema, in the halls of which no one smoked for at least 15 years.
It turned out that after each session, the concentration of 35 harmful substances in the air sharply increases, including benzene with formaldehyde.
Scientists have come to the conclusion that all these chemical compounds enter the room along with the clothes of visitors.
Many people smoke before going to the cinema, and the tobacco smoke is absorbed into the fabric of their clothes. Indoors, they go outside and pollute the surrounding space.
How smoking affects human skin
It is logical to assume that tertiary smoking is less harmful to the respiratory system than passive smoking.
After all, we are talking about a much smaller amount of toxic substances than when inhaling smoke directly from a person smoking nearby.
However, in the course of new scientific work, scientists have identified a new, unexpected danger of tertiary smoking.
According to the results of the study, tobacco smoke absorbed into clothes can cause the development of dermatitis, psoriasis and other skin diseases.
Harm of tertiary smoking
The essence of the experiment was that the authors asked a group of 10 healthy volunteers without bad habits to wear clothes that had been pre-saturated with tobacco smoke for three hours.
To mimic the activity, the participants spent 15 minutes on a treadmill, so that more substances contained in cigarette smoke could get into the skin.
After all this activity, blood and urine samples were taken from the volunteers.
Biomarkers were found in them, which the participants in the experiment did not have before – they indicated oxidative damage to DNA.
Also, the concentration of some proteins in the blood of volunteers increased, and these changes persisted for 22 hours.
According to the authors of the scientific work, the presence of such markers in the long term can lead to skin problems.
Of course, the symptoms will not appear immediately, but if the clothes of a healthy person are regularly soaked with tobacco smoke, the risk of developing skin diseases will constantly increase.
If you buy a used car that was formerly owned by a smoker, you are exposing yourself to some health risks.
If you go to a casino where smoking is allowed, you are also exposing your skin to tertiary smoking.
The same can be said about staying in a hotel room that used to be occupied by a smoker, explained biologist Prue Talbot.
At the moment, scientists intend to continue to study the impact of tertiary smoking on human health. They also want to do some research into the dangers of electronics, which are still gaining popularity.
However, this kind of research is often carried out, and we have already talked about the dangers of “vapes”.
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