Second-hand smoke can harm a baby's breathing, heart rate and growth, which can put the baby at a higher risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI). If parents smoke during pregnancy and after their baby is born, their baby's SUDI risk increases.
You also continue to exhale these poisons for several minutes after extinguishing the cigarette. So if you have a cigarette and then hold your baby, they will breathe in these harmful substances. Smoking inside your home when your baby's not there is not safe either.
Secondhand smoke can cause adverse reproductive health effects in women, including low birth weight. In children, secondhand smoke exposure can cause respiratory infections, ear infections, and asthma attacks. In babies, secondhand smoke can cause sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
It is especially important that you do not share a bed with your baby if either parent is a smoker, even if you don't smoke in the bedroom. It has been shown that the chance of SIDS if bed sharing when you or your partner is a smoker is much greater than if you were both non-smokers.
Paternal smoking is linked to increased risk of congenital heart defects.
This is why we advise that smokers should wait for 30 minutes after smoking before picking up a baby, making sure they wash their hands first.
Thirdhand smoke (THS) is a term used to describe the residual contamination from tobacco smoke that lingers in rooms long after smoking stops and remains on our clothes after we leave a smoky place. It may seem merely like an offensive smell, but it is also indicative of the presence of tobacco toxins.
There's clear evidence that children exposed to second-hand smoke are at an increased risk of early death and disease from various causes. Second-hand smoke can harm a baby's breathing, heart rate and growth, which can put the baby at a higher risk of sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI).
SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome or crib death) occurs four times more often in smoke-exposed babies than in babies who have a smoke-free environment. Pneumonia and bronchiolitis occur four times more often. Respiratory infections (numbers of colds and sinus infections) increase.
Infants are also at risk of getting affected by thirdhand smoke. Exposure to smoke is one of the biggest risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome or SIDS, which is defined as unexplained death, usually during sleep, of a seemingly healthy baby less than a year old.
Breathing in smoke from other people's cigarettes is likely to give them asthma and chest infections. Did you know smoke sticks to clothes and skin? Cigarette smoke can stick to clothes and then your baby can breathe it in. Even outside, cigarette smoke can drift through the air where you don't see it.
Thirdhand smoke residue builds up over time on most surfaces it touches. It can remain for weeks, months or even years. “It resists normal cleaning methods and you can't air it out of rooms or cars with fans or vacuums,” Dr. Choi says.
Smokers spread contaminants wherever they go – pollutants seep out of their clothes, skin, hair, and breath. So before getting close to a baby, smokers should wear clean clothes (that they haven't worn while smoking), wash their hands and face (especially after smoking), and never let the baby suck on their fingers.
If there is no wind, tobacco smoke will rise and fall and flood the local area with second-hand smoke; if there is a breeze, tobacco smoke will spread in many directions. Depending upon weather conditions and air flow, tobacco smoke can be detected at distances between 25-30 feet away.
Thoroughly wash walls and ceilings with detergent and very hot water to remove as much nicotine and tar residue as possible. Wear gloves and use multiple clean rags to prevent simply pushing the residue around. Wash, rinse, repeat!
There has been no determination of how long the harmful effects of secondhand smoke lingers in the air. Depending on a room's ventilation, the smell of tobacco smoke can linger for some time. If tobacco smoke is in the air, it can and does present potential health problems to all but particularly children.
Depending on your steps and diligence in combating the smoke particles, your odor removal timeline could range anywhere from two weeks to a month. But remain patient since your house fire is unique.
Ask people not to smoke around your children. Support family and friends who also want to stop smoking. Decide to have a smoke-free home and car, and ask family and friends to respect your decision. Get rid of all ashtrays in your home.
Don't smoke or vape near your baby. If possible, smoke outside. Make your house and car smoke-free to keep your baby away from secondhand smoke. After vaping, change your clothes, and wash your hands before holding your baby.
Secondhand smoke (SHS) is smoke from burning tobacco products, like cigarettes, cigars, hookahs, or pipes. Secondhand smoke exposure occurs when people breathe in smoke breathed out by people who smoke or from burning tobacco products.
Trisodium Phosphate (TSP) is sometimes used by professionals (e.g., painters, remediation experts) to deal with persistent thirdhand smoke residue. This method requires washing/scrubbing any and all surfaces such as doors, floors, ceilings, walls, baseboards, and floorboards before applying primers and painting.
Thirdhand smoke builds up on surfaces over time. It can become embedded in most soft surfaces such as clothing, furniture, drapes, bedding and carpets. It also settles as dust-like particles on hard surfaces such as walls, floors and in vehicles.
People can carry hazardous compounds from cigarette smoke that cling to their bodies and clothes and then release those compounds into non-smoking environments — exposing people nearby to cigarettes' adverse effects, a new study shows.
The first 15 weeks of pregnancy is an excellent time to quit smoking! Stopping smoking at any point in pregnancy will hugely benefit the health of both mother and baby; reducing the risk of miscarriage, stillbirth and other pregnancy complications.