Ateam of researchers has found one other means by which smoking may impact people’s health. It’s via third-hand smoke, which can induce skin diseases and even “mimic” the harmful impacts of actual smoking.
It’s widely known that smoking just isn’t good for health, and so is exposure to second-hand smoke. But perhaps not everyone seems to be aware of third-hand smoke (THS).
THS is made up of the residual tobacco smoke pollutants that stay on dust and surfaces after smoking tobacco, the researchers explained of their paper, published in eBioMedicine. It could be “re-emitted into the gas phase; or react with oxidants and other compounds within the environment to yield secondary pollutants.”
Based on the researchers, there’s a “general lack of information” on the precise health impacts of exposure to THS on human health.
For his or her work, the researchers conducted a clinical investigation with 10 healthy, non-smoking subjects between 22 to 45 years old. Through the three-hour trials, the themes wore clothes that were either clean or laced with THS. And every hour, they exercised on a treadmill for about quarter-hour to induce sweating and “increase dermal uptake.”
“The order of the exposures was randomized and separated by 20-30 days,” the researchers noted. “Each participant received each exposures.”
Plasma and urine samples were collected prior to the exposure in addition to three and eight hours after, after they woke up the subsequent morning and 22 hours after the exposure.
Indeed, the researchers found that those that were exposed to THS had elevated levels of “urinary biomarkers of oxidative damage to DNA, lipids and proteins.” These even stayed elevated even after they were now not exposed.
“We found exposure of human skin to THS initiates mechanisms of inflammatory skin disease, and elevates urinary biomarkers of oxidative harm, which may lead to other diseases, corresponding to cancer, heart disease and atherosclerosis,” considered one of the study authors, Shane Sakamaki-Ching, who graduated from the University of California-Riverside (UCR), said within the university news release.
The impacts are much like or “mimics” those observed in actual cigarette smokers, the researchers said. And while the exposures in the course of the study were temporary, and thus were “unlikely” to cause skin disease, the markers that the researchers found were “related to early-stage activation of contact dermatitis, psoriasis and other skin conditions.”
Skin diseases corresponding to allergic contact dermatitis and psoriasis have been linked to cigarette use, researchers said.
“These results show acute dermal THS exposure just isn’t only harmful to humans, but in addition has the potential to initiate diseases,” they wrote.
This sheds light on just how THS may impact people, maybe even without knowing it.
“For those who buy a used automotive previously owned by a smoker, you’re putting yourself at some health risk. For those who go to a casino that permits smoking, you’re exposing your skin to THS,” the study’s corresponding writer, Prue Talbot of UCR, said within the news release. “The identical applies to staying in a hotel room that was previously occupied by a smoker.”
As such, the outcomes of the study may help doctors in diagnosing individuals who have a history of exposure to THS and likewise guide policies in limiting THS exposures.