Saturday, January 3, 2009

三手烟 ?

吸烟的害处大家都耳目能详,特别是二手烟的害处。

现在,科学家/学者提出了另外一个吸烟大害,那就是三手烟。

January 3, 2009
A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’

By RONI CARYN RABIN

Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air of second-hand smoke, but experts now have identified another smoking-related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke.

That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor.

Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.

“Everyone knows that second-hand smoke is bad, but they don’t know about this,” said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.

“When their kids are out of the house, they might smoke. Or they smoke in the car. Or they strap the kid in the car seat in the back and crack the window and smoke, and they think it’s okay because the second-hand smoke isn’t getting to their kids,” Dr. Winickoff continued. “We needed a term to describe these tobacco toxins that aren’t visible.”

Third-hand smoke is what one smells when a smoker gets in an elevator after going outside for a cigarette, he said, or in a hotel room where people were smoking. “Your nose isn’t lying,” he said. “The stuff is so toxic that your brain is telling you: ’Get away.’”

The study reported on attitudes toward smoking in 1,500 households across the United States. It found that the vast majority of both smokers and nonsmokers were aware that second-hand smoke is harmful to children. Some 95 percent of nonsmokers and 84 percent of smokers agreed with the statement that “inhaling smoke from a parent’s cigarette can harm the health of infants and children.”

But far fewer of those surveyed were aware of the risks of third-hand smoke. Since the term is so new, the researchers asked people if they agreed with the statement that “breathing air in a room today where people smoked yesterday can harm the health of infants and children.” Only 65 percent of nonsmokers and 43 percent of smokers agreed with that statement, which researchers interpreted as acknowledgement of the risks of third-hand smoke.

The belief that second-hand smoke harms children’s health was not independently associated with strict smoking bans in homes and cars, the researchers found. On the other hand, the belief that third-hand smoke was harmful greatly increased the likelihood the respondent also would enforce a strict smoking ban at home, Dr. Winickoff said.

“That tells us we’re onto an important new health message here,” he said. “What we heard in focus group after focus group was, ‘I turn on the fan and the smoke disappears.’ It made us realize how many people think about second-hand smoke — they’re telling us they know it’s bad
but they’ve figured out a way to do it.”

The data was collected in a national random-digit-dial telephone survey done between September and November 2005. The sample was weighted by race and gender, based on census information.

Dr. Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician who heads the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said the phrase third-hand smoke is a brand-new term that has implications for behavior.

“The central message here is that simply closing the kitchen door to take a smoke is not protecting the kids from the effects of that smoke,” he said. “There are carcinogens in this third-
hand smoke, and they are a cancer risk for anybody of any age who comes into contact with them.”

Among the substances in third-hand smoke are hydrogen cyanide, used in chemical weapons; butane, which is used in lighter fluid; toluene, found in paint thinners; arsenic; lead; carbon monoxide; and even polonium-210, the highly radioactive carcinogen that was used to murder former Russian spy Alexander V. Litvinenko in 2006. Eleven of the compounds are highly carcinogenic.

2 comments:

teddy said...

马华进入道德屠杀的翁总时代
Siew KH | 1月3日 傍晚6点17分
308大选受重创,马华一夜间失去头上戴了50多年的光环,不再是华社的掌门人。我记得马华领这样说:马华历史悠久,有强大结构、领袖经验丰富,要重失去的夺城池并不难。然后,所有高层领袖不断高喊改革、求变、重整、转型…

马华党选过了,领导层选出了,领导开始发言了,但选民看不见改革步伐,只见一群高层中层底层的领袖群在围剿在追打一个人,一个也是被票选出来的署理总会长。

先有总会长多番以道德论调文歼自己的老二;后来一个陆垠佑眼见蔡细历“马来主权论”孤军作战不但不声援还落井下石;凑巧又出现一个自诩廉正的独立组织要监督马华领袖,结果连番重炮也都对准蔡细历;再来一个郑福成假做好人,这边说调解有方,那厢总会长无故再发炮狠批蔡细历;如今汇集各方“英雄”群起围剿一人,课题是什么都已不重要,只要把他轰下台。

突然想起,蔡细历未宣布打总会长,总会长候选人翁诗杰就已开始对着影子猛打;如今上议员有空缺,蔡细历没开口就被多方人马围堵回朝之路。

蔡细历若真重获官职位,有那么可怕吗?为什么要以全世界都已知道和接受的道德过失,对一个有表现有政绩的领袖进行无止境的道德屠杀?

一个拥有百万党员,还努力不懈招收新血的大党,却容不下一个蔡细历?

政经文教万难当前,华社动荡不安,也不如一个蔡细历?

反对党实力如红,日渐壮大酝酿下一个变天,更不如一个蔡细历?

把蔡细历扳倒,其他的领袖就会立刻厉害起来?把蔡细历撺走,马华就会即地重生,立刻大胜?

不要说我是蔡细历的枪手,我没有翁总兵团的绝佳文采。我不是马华党员,也从不投选马华。我只是一个贫弱多病,经常光顾政府医院的常客。我只是一个在医院里听病人、护士和医生说故事,然后可以转告你政府医药系统在蔡细历时代有多大改进、在廖中莱时代有多糟糕的穷病人。

作为一个理智的选民,我想不出什么理由,去否决有能力有意愿要为国家服务的领袖。如果选民愿意给第二次机会让蔡细历将功赎罪,为什么马华不能?为什么翁总不能?

Anonymous said...

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您的一份力,我们跑更远.

马弓手叩首致谢.