The thirdhand smoke grift continues

Third-hand smoke is the health scare that really never took off but won't quite die. That's mainly thanks to the persistence of psychologist Georg Matt who managed to get hold of a stack of cash from the Californian government to set up the laughable Thirdhand Smoke Resource Centre.

Matt is back with yet another study today... 

 

Almost all kids have tobacco on their hands, even in non-smoking homes

Young children touch everything - carpets, tabletops, toys, clothes, etc. - and then touch their mouths and faces. This makes them especially vulnerable to thirdhand smoke, the chemical residue from tobacco smoke left behind in dust and on surfaces after someone smokes or vapes.

 

How does their health suffer when they encounter this terrifying substance? Alas, the researchers don't say.

 

A team of researchers from San Diego State University and the University of Cincinnati used a novel method of swabbing the hands of children 11 years of age and younger to measure the levels of nicotine present, an indicator of thirdhand smoke exposure. 

More than 97% of the 504 children in the study had some level of nicotine present on their hands. More surprisingly, more than 95% of children in non-smoking households and home smoke bans still had nicotine on their hands.

 

This is a tribute to the incredible sensitivity of whatever they're using to pick up these tiny traces of nicotine.

 

The researchers plan to continue analyzing other markers of thirdhand smoke exposure and investigate health outcomes. They hope their research will further support stricter smoking bans, remediation practices, and policies requiring real estate agents and landlords to disclose thirdhand smoke levels in homes.

 

Nothing screams 'serious science' like the researchers telling you what policy objectives they hope to achieve by doing it!

 

Great use of taxpayers' money.