The effects of smoke on the inside of a building, dubbed “third-hand smoke” by a San Diego State University, linger for six months or more, creating toxic tobacco smoke residue that is higher than public buildings and casinos where cigarette smoking is banned.
The study’s lead author psychologist Georg Matt, wrote that casinos should take into consideration the ultimate cost of cleaning up after tobacco use. The longer they wait to end smoking on the premises, the more expense to clean it up, he said.
“Casinos are unusual environments because of the amount of smoking that takes place 24/7 over long periods of time,” he wrote “Over years of smoking, layers of smoke residue stick to surfaces and penetrate deep into materials. If you work at a casino that allows smoking or are a guest, you already know you inhale secondhand smoke every time you breathe. Because the tobacco smoke residue remains long after a smoking ban, you will continue to get exposed even after the secondhand smoke has disappeared.”
Matt said that casinos are more polluted with third-hand smoke than any nonsmoker home they have examined so far. “Nonsmokers are at risk of being exposed to higher concentration of third-hand smoke in a casino than they would in a third-hand smoke-polluted home,” he wrote.
