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Nearly every child in America has nicotine on their hands — even those who live in homes where no one smokes, a new study finds.
Researchers at San Diego State University (SDSU) in California found that 96 percent of children had traces of nicotine on their hands, with levels equal between children from homes with and without smokers.
They warn that children are regularly exposed to traces of the highly addictive, dangerous substance and may even be carrying it around on their bodies.
The experts also say that nicotine can reach children's hands when its residue accumulates on household surfaces and appears as dust particles.
They also said teenagers are more likely to take it due to more frequent hand-to-mouth behavior, where it could pose a risk due to their developing organs and immature immune systems.
Dr. Penelope Quintana, a professor of environmental health at SDSU who participated in the study, said it was a "wake-up call" about substances that could be lurking in homes.
Researchers led by San Diego State University in California swabbed the fingers of 500 children around the age of six.
Children from black families and those earning less than $15,000 a year were most likely to have nicotine on their hands. The graph above shows the nicotine levels on the hands of children who lived with smokers (yellow line) and non-smokers (blue line).
Researchers who published their results in JAMA network opened For the study, she wiped the fingers of 500 children around the age of six. Three fifths came from non-smoking households.
Children were considered protected from tobacco exposure if they lived in households where no one smoked or vaped and had no contact with tobacco users in the past week.
The researchers swabbed all five fingers of the child's dominant hand - usually the right hand - and tested the samples for nicotine.
Of the 193 children from smoking households, 189 (97 percent) were found to have nicotine on their hands.
Among the 311 children who lived in households where no one smoked, 296 (95 percent) were found to be carrying nicotine.
Children from households earning $15,000 or up to $30,000 a year were six and two times more likely to carry nicotine than families earning more.
Black children were also more likely to have nicotine on their hands than those from white households.
Quintana warned children from households earning less than $15,000 a year and ethnic minority groups had the highest levels of nicotine on their hands.
Scientists said children are at greater risk of acquiring this condition - known as third-hand smoke (THS) - than adults because they spend more time indoors.
Nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes and is used in both cigarettes and related products such as e-cigarettes.
“Low-income children and children of Black parents are most affected by this involuntary exposure,” Quintana said.
“This is a wake-up call to protect vulnerable children and an overlooked part of housing disparities.”
Experts warn that nicotine could be present throughout the home, even in homes where no one smokes
Dr. Melinda Mahabee-Gittens of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, who led data collection for the project, said, "One outcome of this research should be to include third-hand smoking in parents' smoking cessation education programs."
The study was based on just one area of the United States, and it is not clear whether its results summarize the status in the rest of the country.
About 12.5 percent of adults smoke in the United States, but in California only 10 percent smoke. It has the second lowest smoking rate in the country.
West Virginia, Kentucky and Louisiana have the highest smoking rates in the country, with more than two in 10 adults using cigarettes.
But Utah, California and Massachusetts have the lowest rates.