Carpets Retain a Stubborn Grip on Pollutants from Tobacco Smoke

In rooms where smoking has taken place regularly, tobacco's imprint lingers on indoor surfaces, even long after regular smoking has stopped. The leftover residues, known as thirdhand smoke, can be a long-term source of indoor pollutants. New research from a team led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ÜBerkeley Lab) zeroes in on carpets as an especially potent - and difficult to clean - reservoir of tobacco contaminants. When thirdhand smoke settles into surfaces, it doesn't stay there. Chemicals re-enter the air, sometimes transforming into new types of contaminants. Carpet is a major sink for thirdhand smoke. In this study, the researchers evaluated the effects of ozonation, a common cleaning method, on smoke-exposed carpet.