Indoor pollution caused by smoking: New issues caused by third-hand smoking

Abstract

The most health effects of smoking are mainly induced by primary smoking by the smoker, second-hand smoke that comes from the side stream of a cigarette and smoke breathed out by a smoker, and third-hand smoke that comes from the residual tobacco emitted from the clothes and walls in the smoking room. Particularly, there is lower awareness about third-hand smoke and it's health effects, in the world. However, some reports show that residual tobacco smoke in indoor rooms include various toxic compounds such as pyridines, furans, nicotine, tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) etc. We need to pay attention to the health effects that third-hand smoking has for infants and young children, because they are unintentionally exposed to these compounds through indoor dust and air.

In Japan, the revised health promotion act was enforced in July 2019. Therefore, it is expected that indoor smoking opportunities will decrease significantly in the future due to the impact of this law. However, smoking is still possible in more than half of the restaurants, bars etc. It is thought that the change of conventional smoking areas to non-smoking areas cannot completely eliminate the effects of third-hand smoking due to the residual tobacco smoke. Furthermore, recently, a new type of tobacco product became very popular in the world. However, the health effects and environmental pollution caused by these products still remains unclear. Therefore, to respond to second-hand smoke and new smoking problems including third-hand smoking, it is necessary to establish high-performance analytical techniques to trace chemical components and employ the biological impact assessment method to obtain basic data and clarify the short-term and long-term effects on human health. It is also necessary that continuous epidemiological research in the field of public health be conducted.