It is not enough that a smoker smokes away from babies or pregnant women. Smoking in enclosed spaces does a lot of harm, too. It seems that cigarette smoke truly reeks of poison that there are also risks with the toxic particulate matter found in cigarette smoke that has touched fabrics or hair. Most people have already heard of ‘second-hand smoke’ by now, but very few households are aware of ‘third-hand smoke.’ For smokers, there’s the great outdoors waiting for smoking that does not bear too heavily on the conscience.

Some of the risks mentioned with third-hand smoke involve the susceptibility of children when they inhale or lick the toxic particles in cigarette smoke that remained on clothing or hair. Not a small matter really because this exposure is connected to learning disabilities in children. Pregnant women are also at risk with this kind of smoke because the poison that they inhale can be transferred to their unborn child.

Parents who smoke outside of the house still run the risk of having tobacco contaminants at home than if they did not smoke at all. Children are still bound to inhale these contaminants in one way or another. According to researchers, children are susceptible to ‘third-hand smoke’ because they are in close physical contact with smoking adults in their home, and that they breathe more frequently.

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Via BBC

This public awareness campaign executed by EURO RSG FLAGSHIP for the THAI HEALTH PROMOTION FOUNDATION is a timely series of messages, especially in a country such as Thailand where the rate of tobacco smoking is very high.  Worldwide, second hand smoke is a major cause of children’s illness. However, 85 percent of adults who smoke and, at the same time, living with a child are unmindful that the child actually inhales their cigarette smoke. This gross irresponsibility has grave impact on children’s health. In this particualar visual, it clearly shows that if an adult smokes in the presence of a child, it is nothing short of letting the child smoke herself.

Second-hand smoke, sometimes called environmental tobacco smoke or ETS, contains 40 toxic substances that cause cancer. Some of these killer substances have stronger concentrations in second hand smoke than they do in the smoke that goes directly into smokers’ lungs. In children, ETS is linked to lower respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia, increased fluid in the middle ear, upper respiratory tract irritation, and reduced lung function. There is scientific truth in the popular notion that a non-smoker who finds himself near someone who is smoking a cigarette is more vulnerable to the harmful effects of tobacco than the smoker himself. This is more pronounced tenfold if the non-smoker happens to be a child.

Children have the greatest benefit in any anti-smoking campaign. Kids are affected more with the harmful effects of tobacco because they breathe more air relative to body weight. Their immune system is relatively weaker. They are also less able to refrain themselves from exposure. Even if an adult smokes only in one room, tobacco smoke permeates the whole house because most of these highly dangerous substances are invisible gas.

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