Smokers ‘contaminate public places’ by releasing dangerous tobacco chemicals from their clothes, scientists claim.
In the first study of its kind, researchers were able to track how levels of chemicals in a movie theatre changed when smokers walked in.
Toxins soared during films for adults – when smokers were present. Cinema goers were exposed to the equivalent of up to 10 cigarettes of secondhand smoke during one hour.
The findings demonstrate the dangers of tobacco chemicals hanging in the air, in materials like clothes and on surfaces like furniture – called thirdhand smoke.
Researchers, from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, said despite regulations preventing people from smoking indoors, ‘hazardous chemicals from cigarette smoke are still making their way indoors’.
Researchers used highly sensitive analytical instrumentation in a movie theatre to track people over the course of a week during differently rated movies
Professor Drew Genter, a researcher on the study, said: ‘People are substantial carriers of thirdhand smoke contaminants to other environments.
‘So, the idea that someone is protected from the potential health effects of cigarette smoke because they’re not directly exposed to secondhand smoke is not the case.’
The team used highly sensitive analytical instruments to track chemicals in a movie theatre over the course of a week during differently rated movies.
Mass spectrometry, a technique to measure molecules, detected traces of smoke in an empty non-smoking movie theatre before guests arrived, and as attendees took their seats.
The team found a diverse range of compounds found in tobacco smoke – like toxic benzene and formaldehyde – spiked dramatically when certain audiences arrived for the movies.
Increases were minor for G-rated movies, but audiences for R-rated movies – which tend to be adults who may smoke – released a lot more compounds into the theatre.
The results suggested that sitting in the theatre had similar affects to exposure to secondhand smoke.
Secondhand smoke, which contains around 4,000 chemicals, is smoke which comes from a burning cigarette or is exhaled from the person smoking the cigarette.
Sitting in the theatre for one hour was akin to being exposed to one-10 cigarettes of secondhand smoke, the scientists said.
The emissions peaked when people arrived for the movie, but didn’t disappear when the moviegoers left.
The researchers were able to pick up gas particles for days after people left the theatre, in some cases.
Like in hotel furnishings or on the inside of rental cars, the smoke was found to have clung to the upholstery and furnishings. This is called thirdhand smoke.
Thirdhand exposure by inhaling evaporated gases or dusts that settle on surfaces after smoking, or from touching or ingesting the cigarette-related dust on surfaces, has been identified as a health threat.
‘In particular, we noticed that nicotine was the most prominent compound by far,’ co-author Jenna Ditto, a PhD student in Professor Gentner’s lab, said.
The findings corroborate previous studies that have found nicotine on surfaces in numerous non-smoking environments.
Therefore, the researchers believe their findings are applicable to many public indoor areas.
They added furthermore that evidence of higher concentrations of dangerous chemicals may appear in less well-ventilated spaces like on public transport, in bars, offices, and in the home.
Researchers from San Diego State University recently found that months after smoke has cleared, toxic residues still coat surfaces in indoor areas where it was once allowed.
They found that decades of heavy smoking in casinos caused massive build-ups of toxic residue on walls, furniture, and in carpets. The residue declined after smoking was banned in a Northern California casino.
But even six months later, toxic thirdhand smoke remained above levels found in formerly smoke-friendly hotels or private homes where bans had been introduced.
Researchers from the University of California, Riverside, found that thirdhand smoke exposure can cripple your brain and liver, affecting your mannerisms, increasing your risk of neurodegenerative diseases, and ruining your metabolism.
The research team analysed how people were affected by inhaling smoke from another person’s clothing, hair, home, or car.
In previous studies on mice, the same scientists showed thirdhand smoke can cause type 2 diabetes, hyperactivity, liver and lung damage, and wound-healing complications.
Smoking, first and second hand, causes around seven out of every 10 cases of lung cancer in the UK, among many other types of lung disease.