and that compared to hotels with full smoking bans, nicotine levels on hotel room surfaces are two times higher.

Just because you choose the non-smoking hotel room doesn't mean you're completely protecting yourself from exposure.

A new study published in the journal, Tobacco Control, found hotels that only maintain a partial smoking ban still expose their occupants to cigarette smoke,

The researchers studied the air quality and nicotine residue on the surfaces of smoking and non-smoking rooms in 30 hotels with partial smoking bans and 10 hotels with total smoking bans in California.

The non-smokers who stayed in hotels with partial bans also had higher levels of nicotine and tobacco by products such as cotinine in their urine and finger residue samples.

Not surprisingly, levels of nicotine in the air were much higher in smoking than in non-smoking rooms, but levels in non-smoking rooms in hotels with partial bans were still 40% higher than in hotels with complete bans.

They also took urine and finger swipe samples from non-smoking participants who spent the night in the hotels to assess their exposure to nicotine.

Second hand smoke can pose serious risks to health, according to recent studies.

And data from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) linked secondhand smoke to 46 000 heart disease deaths in the U. S. each year. It is also associated with a higher risk of lung disease, and babies born to mothers exposed to second hand smoke are more likely to be of low birth weight and suffer from respiratory distress, while teens may be more vulnerable to hearing loss. Thank you.

Non-smokers who are exposed to cigarette smoke at work or at home can increase their heart disease risk by 25%-30%.