If you smell thirdhand smoke - run for your life! What it is and why it’s so bad...

The next time you get in an elevator with someone who you suspect has had a cigarette - get out and wait for the next one!

That’s the advice from Dr. Jonathan Winickoff, of Harvard Medical School. He says that’s thirdhand smoke you’re smelling and it’s a contaminant that sticks around long after the cigarette is gone. If you can smell it, it can enter your body, through your lungs or your skin. Just touching the same button that smoker touched could contaminate you. 

Dr. Winickoff says to really protect yourself from thirdhand smoke, you’ll need to be extra aware of your surroundings. If you sense a trace of cigarette in your hotel room, ask for another. If that cab smells sooty - hail a different one. The microscopic particles of thirdhand smoke can settle anywhere. If there is a smoker in the restaurant or kitchen you’re enjoying, you could even be eating them from dishes and flatware.

If you're a smoker, spread the word.  Pretty soon you'll have all the elevators, cabs and restaurants to yourself.