Native American Tobaccoo flower, leaves, and buds
Tobacco is an annual or bi-annual growing 1-3 meters tall with large sticky leaves that contain nicotine. Native to the Americas, tobacco has a long history of use as a shamanic inebriant and stimulant. It is extremely popular and well-known for its addictive potential.
Nicotiana tabacum
Nicotiana rustica leaves.
Nicotiana rustica leaves have a nicotine content as high as 9%, whereas Nicotiana tabacum (common tobacco) leaves contain about 1 to 3%
A cigar is a tightly rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco which is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Sumatra, Philippines, and the Eastern United States.
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the fresh leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as an organic pesticide, and in the form of nicotine tartrate it is used in some medicines. In consumption it may be in the form of cigarettes smoking, snuffing, chewing, dipping tobacco, or snus.
3rd Hand Smoke Study Has Legal Implications
Thirdhand tobacco smoke, what the New York Times called “the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing,” reacts with a common indoor air pollutant to cause very potent cancer-causing chemicals, a new study shows. This finding has important implication for employers, parents, fetuses, and for e-cigarettes, says public interest law professor John Banzhaf of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), America’s first antismoking organization.
Fortunately, says Banzhaf, the law provides protection against exposure to this substance, previously simply known simply as “tobacco smoke residue,” which also contains heavy metals, hydrogen cyanide (used in chemical weapons), butane (used in lighter fluid), toluene (found in paint thinners), arsenic, lead, and even radioactive Polonium-210 (used to murder a Russian spy).
A federal court has held that an employee whose health is adversely affected by thirdhand smoke has a cause of action under the Americans With Disabilities Act [ADA] against an employer who refused to reduce his exposure in the workplace, and a complaint by Action on Smoking and Health recently forced a university to protect a woman and her unborn child whose health was threatened by tobacco smoke residue on the clothing of an office mate who smoked outdoors.
In the latter situation one doctor stated that “her sensitivity is also to the tobacco smoke residue on the person or clothing of a smoker, not just the smoke in the air. Therefore, to protect her health, especially during her pregnancy, she should not be assigned to an office with someone who smokes during the work day.”
Another doctor said that “smoking and second hand smoke has known effects on the placenta that carries nourishment to the baby. Therefore, to protect her health and the health of her baby, she should not be assigned to an office with someone who smokes during the workday, even if that person doesn’t smoke in that room.’
In addition to these two situations in which a nonsmoking man, and woman and her unborn child, were expressly protected from thirdhand tobacco smoke, several courts have also recognized the right of children to be protected from thirdhand smoke.
Among the judges in dozens of states which have issued court orders protecting children involved in custody disputes from smoking in the home, many have stipulated that there be no smoking 24 or even 48 hours before the child’s expected arrival, thereby providing protection from third hand smoke.
Also, in many of the states which protect foster children from tobacco smoke, smoking is banned in the home even when the child is not present, another indication of the need to protect children from third hand as well as second hand tobacco smoke, says Banzhaf.
The authors suggest that this new study should also raise concerns about the purported safety of electronic cigarettes whose major claim is that they eliminate the carcinogenic risk posed by smoking tobacco cigarettes. If the nicotine exhaled by e-cigarette users is easily converted into deadly and potent carcinogenic chemicals, there is even more reason to be concerned about their safety, and the need to prevent their use in no-smoking sections in public.
Indeed, in a broader sense, says Banzhaf, who heads Action on Smoking and Health, as the dangers of tobacco smoke residue become more widely known, both judges and legislators are likely to extend to nonsmokers the same protections from third hand tobacco smoke the law now extends regarding tobacco smoke itself.
PROFESSOR JOHN F. BANZHAF III
Professor of Public Interest Law at GWU,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
FELLOW, World Technology Network, and
Executive Director and Chief Counsel
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
America’s First Antismoking Organization
2013 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20006, USA
(202) 659-4310 // (703) 527-8418
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Woo Woo … here comes the Banzwagon … out of context, out of scale and off the planet. Mr Banzstuff is well known for being a fundamentalist perverter of scale.
Tell him to get some perspective and then to get a life and allow other people to have theirs without him whining on all the time.
Several months ago I developed community acquired pnemonia. A couple entered my work place and I could smell the most awful stench of tobacco smoke I had ever experienced. It was strong and I had the impression that it was a build up of toxins on their clothing and hair. I immediately got a sinus headache, and began to cough. I ended up being off work for 10 days with pneumonia(having to use vacation time) due to third hand smoke. In 2002 I had good lung function but in 2005 I was diagnosed with asthma. I believe what strongly contributed to the ailment was going in and out of the county building where I worked and passing through a haze of smoke everyday. I generally had to take at least (1) day off from work due to respiratory problems.
The claimed hazards of “third-hand smoke” have never actually been proven using the scientific method. It is pure junk science. Remember, it’s the DOSE that makes the poison. As for pneumonia, that is caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi, not third-hand smoke. That was likely a coincidence, and correlation does not prove causation. The plural of “anecdote” is not “data.”
The lawsuit mentioned in the article is a prime example of why we need seious tort reform to protect what’s left of this country from lawsuit abuse and all it engenders. Maybe we should sue the tobacco companies for using radioactive fertilizers–that’s how the polonium-210 got in there in the first place–as well as all the harmful adulterants and pesticides? But that will never happen, because anti-smoking zealots view harm reduction the same as the Pope views condoms. God forbid we save the lives of those evil, wretched smokers!
Even the dangers of second-hand smoke have been grossly exaggerated, and can be greatly reduced with rational ventilation standards.
Yes, smoking is stupid, it stinks, and it kills. I’ll grant everyone that. (And no, I don’t smoke, but I used to and still remember what it was like to be ostracized despite my NY cigarette taxes subsidizing everyone else). But we all have vices, and it’s supposed to be a free country. There will be many things you don’t like–get used to it. If you can’t handle living in a free society, you should take advantage of the best freedom we have to offer–the freedom to leave.
LIVE FREE OR DIE!
I’m having a similar experience as Judy Mays. Recently 3 smokers in my office moved within 12 to 20 feet from my own desk. Whenever one of them comes back from cigarette break, my suffering begins. My symptoms include respiratory irritation, coughing, sinus headache. The headache can last for hours after I leave the office. I’m mildly chemically sensitive and also experience same symptoms from inhaling strong perfumes and liquid marker pens. Second-hand smoke and third-hand smoke contain the same chemicals. That’s just common sense.
Paracelsus’s 450-year-old maxim, “The dose makes the poison” has recently been proven wrong, especially with endocrine-disrupting chemicals (www.ourstolenfuture.org). Also, when a chemical is bioaccumulative (eg. heavy metals, organo-pesticides), how much is in a single dose becomes meaningless, and overtime our body can store up significant mounts of toxins, as proven in many body burden studies (www.ewg.org/sites/humantoxome)
The taxes smokers pay is miniscule in comparison to the crushing economic and quality of life costs to society of their smoking, and leaves smokers with a debt they cannot hope to make good. I believe a previous commentator meant to write that smokers “Live free AND die,” which is their choice; a choice we now support as a country, but it is not a balanced and rational choice that equally protects all members of our society.
I am a child of smoker parents, I believe that 3rd hand smoke and 2nd hand smoke is a serious issue. As a kid I normally do not get headaches and migrains, but when my parents start smoking I start getting them. Now my parents smoke around a fan, and don’t get me wrong it does help but even when im a room or two away I can still smell the crap that comes out of the cigaret. As a child i cannot just move out, i am stuck living with them and the completly refuse to stop smoking so i feel that they are violating my rights as an American by shortening my life while i have no say over it. Smoking is a HORRIBLE habbit and i belieze one of the reasons our generation isn’t suppose to outlive our parents is because tobacco companies are tricking kids into getting hoked at such a young age. So I just want to say if u have a child please do not smoke around them, let them breath the clean are god gave us!
Hovawart, you must not be from New York where it cigarettes are currently $9-10 a pack, most of which is taxes. Back in the early 2000s when I used to smoke in NY it was $5-6 a pack, which was part of the reason I quit. Anyway, even in lower tax states, when you factor in the fact that smokers die younger than nonsmokers, they actually rack up FEWER healthcare costs over the lifecycle and collect little to no Social Security benefits despite paying into it for decades, and thus smokers more than pay their way. Unfortunately, you can’t say the same for drinkers. And yes, I do drink, but I would be fine with them raising the alcohol taxes, as long as the money goes to a good cause and it’s not as high as the taxes in Scandinavia.
Sickandtiredchild, you appear to be conflating second-hand smoke (actual smoke) with third-hand smoke (residue on surfaces long after smoke clears). Let me ask you, would you rather your parents smoke outside or inside? There’s your answer. Just so you know, I had to deal with it too (indoors, with NO fan) when I was a kid, though for some reason I didn’t get any headaches.
As for today’s younger generation having a shorter life expectancy, it’s not due to smoking. Fortunately, smoking rates are at a 40-year low. The real reason is the obesity epidemic.
AF, from what you say about perfumes and markers as well as smoke, you probably have MCS or some kind of allergy. Or it could be psychosomatic. It kinda sucks to be you I guess, but hey, at least it’s not pneumonia, right? Perhaps you should sit farther away from them?
As for toxicology, even taking into account the stuff on alarmist websites like ourstolenfuture.org, there is still a safe dose for virtually everything. Even (gasp) radiation. You are partly right about bioaccumulation and body burdens. But the minuscule amounts of various substances in “third-hand smoke” have never been shown to be enough to significantly bioaccumulate. Thus, paracelsus has not been proven wrong. Sorry.
Some people are DEATHLY allergic to peanuts, including peanut dust. Should we ban the Texas Roadhouse now? LOL!
The topic is very interesting and never thought about existing the 3rd. hand somke. I was a second hand smoker. I got asthma because my husband used to heavily smoke into the house. I had to go outside to be able to breath. I wonder the chances I have to get lungs cancer. Is there a study about the efects of those toxic substances continuing acting on a body after descontinuing the exposure to them?
In 2006, out of nowhere, I developed a severe allergy to third-hand smoke. Suddenly if a person walked by me and they just had a cigarette, my throat would close up leaving me gasping for air…for HOURS! There was no event that preceeded this…it just happened one day. Prior to that, I NEVER had a breathing problem.
I saw doctors, pulmonary specialists, allergists and none could help me. My allergist blamed all the chemicals being added to cigarettes, but said there was nothing I could do because there was no known problem associated to smokers residue.
Since 2006 I have had to quit a good job with a pension after they refused to move me a third time, drop out of classes I need for my degree and move out of my apartment because of exposure to third hand smoke. Every day I am attacked by this…when I go to the grocery store, the library, school, work, even getting gas if I happen to be waited on by a smoker (we don’t pump our own gas in Jersey). I can’t go out to public places with my friends anymore I have even had to decline a wedding invitation for a family member out of fear of being in a dining hall with multiple smokers who would be drinking and puffing away!
There is nowhere to go to avoid smokers and my life for the past four years has turned into a LIVING HELL!! This isn’t asthma so it doesn’t respond to asthma medications, belive me I’ve tried them all! It responds to NOTHING!! I just have to SUFFER! So please don’t downplay the seriousness of this chemical laden residue as a plot against smokers!
In response to an idiotic post above, a person allergic to peanuts can exercise control with their diet to avoid allergic reactions. I on the other hand have no protection or way of fighting this except to aviod people which i can’t do since I need to work, eat, etc.
Contrary to what the pro-smokers have to say, there is something harmful in third-hand smoke and it has harmed someone…ME!
Sorry to hear that you have what must be an extremely rare but nonetheless severe allergy to something in cigarette smoke. Does anyhing else set off symptomes as well? If what you say is true, that is right up there with allergies to sunlight, water, perfume, or EMFs (yes, all of those do exist) in terms of hellishness. Unfortunately for you, in a free society, harm to others must reach a certain threshold before something (e.g. smoking) can be banned outright. We tolerate rare (and not so rare) risks as part of the cost of modern living, just think of cars. I’m surprised no medications work at all. Ever thought about carrying an epi-pen, like those with bee sting (or other unavoidable) allergies do?
I wonder if it is the radioactive fertilizers, pesticides, or toxic additives that cause the reactions? I do agree that those things should be banned or severely restricted. While tobacco itself is clearly harmful to the user, I don’t think any Native Americans in the days of old suffered from what you are currently experiencing.
Actually, the more that I think about it, the more it sounds like it could be psychosomatic or something like that. I know you my saying this probably makes you angry, but did you ever give hypnosis a try? I’m not a doctor or anything, but it can’t hurt, right?
smoking will always be around…traditional or electric.. legal or not. people can complain, bans will be issued, but much like everything else that is either bad for you or causes something even banned or illegal, it will still be around,
like the cleaners that can and have been proven to cause cancer, or some other chemical that can be sprayed into the air, that can put u in respirtory arrest ect, they are still around and sold and people use them.
so i guess my point is why bother complaining , its not going to make that much of a big difference to ban e cigs inside places or ban tradional smoking or even shut down distributers.
the world revolves around itself. regardless of ones or even thousands opinions and u revolve around the world.
NO,,,never ban the TEXAS ROADHOUSE!! I GET A UNIFORM DISCOUNT & all the peanuts I can eat while waiting. lol
Funny you should mention e-cigarettes, Storm. Look at the current movement to ban them–does that make any sort of sense at all? Kind of like those who want to ban snus, it’s quite simple, really. Tobacco harm reduction is to the anti-smoker movement what condoms are to the Pope. The same reason the government hasn’t banned those radioactive fertilizers and toxic pesticides used to grow tobacco. Ditto for the myriad harmful additives as well. God forbid anyone try to save the lives of those evil, wretched smokers while still allowing them to get their fix.
On second thought, perhaps the tobacco companies are secretly behind the drive to wipe out their high-tech competition? Or maybe it’s competition with Johnson and Johnson, who make Nicorette and other quit products?
Ajax,
Your “Live Free or Die” only pertains to smokers I suppose, right? Are you friggin kidding me! How can a non-smoker live “Free” as you say when they are constantly being killed each day by second and third hand smoke! WE as NON-SMOKERS are basically told, tough luck. How’s that living free you moron! So, I guess we’re to just roll over and let you cancerous, diseased, psychologically damaged, pieces of dirt screw up the air I and other NON-SMOKING people breathe in to our lungs everyday? What are you, 2? If smokers are having some kind of psychological issues that cause them to smoke in the first place, it’s not my issue…go get professional help and if you tell me you can’t afford it, then quit purchasing cigarettes and you’ll be able to afford the psychological care!