Almost all young children, even those living in homes where no one smokes, have traces of tobacco nicotine on their hands, a US scientific study has found for the first time.
Little children tend to catch everything - carpets, tables, clothes, toys, etc. and then touch their mouths and faces. This makes them particularly vulnerable to "third-hand" passive smoking (second-hand being those who inhale other people's smoke), coming into contact with the remnants of cigarette chemicals left in the dust and on the surfaces of objects.
Researchers from San Diego State University and the University of Cincinnati, who published the paper in the American medical journal JAMA Network Open, analysed data on 504 children up to 11 years old and found that at least 97% had traces of nicotine on their hands.
In fact, more than 95% of the children came from "smokeless" households, so nicotine exposure was due either to visiting smokers or to children's contact with objects outside the home on which nicotine had been deposited.
Children from low-income families had more obvious traces of nicotine on their hands than those from high-income families. The researchers pointed to the need to protect children from secondhand smoke in the home, car and other places.
Source: CNA
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