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Textile and Other Odours: A Focus on Third-hand Smoke and Laundry Odour
Published in G. Thilagavathi, R. Rathinamoorthy, Odour in Textiles, 2022
R. Rathinamoorthy, G. Thilagavathi
Out of several potential environmental odours, tobacco smoke is of high interest as it creates serious health issues for nonsmokers. Tobacco smoke contains several carcinogenic chemicals that lead to cancer (U.S. EPA 1992). Cigarette smoke/odour harms the human lungs as it contains more than 4000 chemicals, out of which around 69 are carcinogenic and at least 250 chemical substances develop potential health hazards (Brunnemann and Hoffmann 1991). Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) generally indicates the tobacco content in the indoor air after the end of smoking, without any active smokers. It is known as second-hand smoking (SHS). The smoke or components of the tobacco further cling to the surfaces of furniture, walls, home textiles, and apparel and pollute the air for months, which is known as third-hand smoke (THS) (Chien, Chang, and Liu 2011: Nilsen and Nilsen 1997). THS further can react with the dust or oxidants in the atmosphere upon ageing and develop a secondary pollutant, which can also create serious health hazards (Matt et al. 2008). One of the most important pollutants that results from THS and atmospheric nitrous acid is tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA), which is very well known for its carcinogenic nature (Matt et al. 2011). Further, hydrogen cyanide, butane, toluene, formaldehyde, and even radioactive polonium-210 and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were found and reported in THS (Talbot and Palmer 2013). Table 9.1 compares the various issues developed by SHS and THS (Chi-Yung Cheng et al. 2016).
Tobacco Products
Published in Barry L. Johnson, Maureen Y. Lichtveld, Environmental Policy and Public Health, 2017
Barry L. Johnson, Maureen Y. Lichtveld
In addition to the health hazard of secondhand smoke, a relatively new concept in environmental health is called thirdhand smoke. According to the Mayo Clinic, “Thirdhand smoke is generally considered to be residual nicotine and other chemicals left on a variety of indoor surfaces by tobacco smoke. This residue is thought to react with common indoor pollutants to create a toxic mix. This toxic mix of thirdhand smoke contains cancer-causing substances, posing a potential health hazard to nonsmokers who are exposed to it, especially children. Studies show that thirdhand smoke clings to hair, skin, clothes, furniture, drapes, walls, bedding, carpets, dust, vehicles and other surfaces, even long after smoking has stopped. Infants, children and nonsmoking adults may be at risk of tobacco-related health problems when they inhale, ingest or touch substances containing thirdhand smoke” [33].
Volatilization and partitioning of residual electronic cigarette emissions to particulate matter
Published in Aerosol Science and Technology, 2023
Henry J. Colby, Erin F. Katz, Peter F. DeCarlo
Third-hand smoke (THS), or residual tobacco smoke, has been recognized as an unintended exposure route to toxins in conventional cigarette (CC) smoke (Winickoff et al. 2009; Matt, Quintana, Destaillats, et al. 2011). Secondhand smoke (SHS) is a more commonly understood unintended route of exposure; however, unlike SHS, THS does not require the presence of a smoker or recent smoking activity for exposure and has a much longer lifetime (Kraev et al. 2009; Matt, Quintana, Zakarian, et al. 2011; Matt et al. 2017). THS consists of CC smoke particles that have deposited onto surrounding surfaces. Once deposited on these surfaces, THS constituents can undergo chemical reactions to form harmful products such as tobacco specific nitrosamines, isocyanic acid, and more (Sleiman et al. 2010; Schick et al. 2014; Borduas et al. 2016; Jacob et al. 2017). Semi-volatile chemical species from THS including nicotine have been shown to evaporate from surfaces and partition to aqueous aerosol particles via an acid-base mechanism, resulting in a route for inhalation exposure and transport through the indoor environment (Collins, Wang, and Abbatt 2018; DeCarlo, Avery, and Waring 2018). About 30% of aerosol mass in an empty, nonsmoking university classroom had a THS chemical signature, suggesting that exposure to THS can occur in public spaces regardless of smoking regulations (DeCarlo, Avery, and Waring 2018). Additionally, measurements in a nonsmoking movie theater in Mainz, Germany demonstrate that these THS species can be transported indoors by smokers (Sheu et al. 2020).