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The scene is the end-of-year party at your son’s pre-school. After the little concert where all the kids dance and sing their songs, everyone gets together for a picnic: there’s tsatsiki, chips and dips, snacks on sticks, some wine, and soon enough people start lighting up.

Smoking in the Great Outdoors
A voice inside you mutters about this, because your kids are milling about. But the smokers elegantly blow their ribbons of carcinogens skyward, so surely nobody’s in any harm, right?

Besides, why make a scene? Asking people not to smoke is fraught with emotion; someone always takes offence: “Hello? I asked you not to smoke near my kids. I didn’t say I wanted to sleep with your spouse and move into your house and the get the PIN numbers to your bank cards.”

So you keep the peace, sip the wine, nibble your cheese. It’s when you get home that you realize your clothes smell of tobacco smoke. Your lungs probably do too. And your kids’.

Tougher tobacco laws
The government has some truly back-handed policies, like the tragic-comic now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t roll-out of on anti-retrovirals for HIV sufferers. But it’s also done some good things, like toughening up tobacco laws.

Still, the laws are flouted each day, and people are exposed to dangerous fumes against their will. You’re at an outside restaurant and fumes drift over. You see parents smoking in their cars, with kids in the back (It’s not illegal. The idea of outlawing was greeted with howls of outrage). We shrug and ignore it. We don’t want to make a scene.

The findings of a new study at San Diego University may change that, in those who’re open to change, anyway. It found that the children of parents who step outside for a puff are still exposed to the effects of passive smoking.

Smoking outside gives no protection to kids
The study shows that smoking outside doesn’t protect children from second-hand smoke. Nicotine, a primary ingredient of secondhand smoke, was detected in the homes of parents who went outside for a smoke, says the study’s author, Georg Matt. The children in these homes were found to have eight times more nicotine in their bodies than the children of parents who didn’t smoke.

While the levels of nicotine aren’t high, the study authors warned that over time they could build up, increasing the risk of the illnesses related to smoking, such as asthma, and even sudden infant death syndrome.

While smoking outside is better than smoking inside, it certainly doesn’t protect kids from passive smoke. The study found that the nicotine particles came back into the house with the parents after they smoked – in their hair and clothes. After that the particles settled with dust on toys, bedding, carpets and furniture, or hung in the air until they were inhaled.

Commenting on the study, Martin Jarvis, a tobacco researcher from University College London noted that if nicotine was present in the homes of smokers, it probably indicated the presence of other harmful ingredients.

Tobacco smoke contains 4000 chemicals
Research (In the context of this report, the term “research” refers to credible, independent studies, not the ones funded by tobacco firms, which find that smoke is either harmless or in fact healthy) describes tobacco smoke as a cocktail of about 4000 chemicals. These include hydrogen cyanide, formaldehyde and ammonia.

Matt suggested that one of the ways that you can protect yourself from lingering tobacco fumes when you move house: check whether the occupants of the home you’re considering buying are smokers.

In a way, the results of the study shouldn’t be surprising. Smokers who try to quit have long been advised to wash bedding, carpets, curtains and even walls before stubbing out the last butt. That’s because the nicotine residue triggers the craving for a smoke.

Blood sugar levels also play a role. Extreme highs and lows in your blood sugar levels can trigger cravings for quick-fix stimulants such as nicotine. So learn about the glycaemic indexes of your staple foods and amend where necessary. And do whatever you can to quit smoking. Groups like Smokenders can help. (William Smook)

Read more:
Still smoking, you big softie?
Flu and smokers

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