Issues with smokers

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Urg!
As I am typing this I am at work (Not much happening obviously),
The guy who sits in the cubical next to me went out for a smoke not long ago and just came back to sit down.... he reeks of smoke and I feel like I am about to hurl!

I have high sensitivity to tobacco smoke, even just the smell of it makes my stomach twist.

Why can't smokers at my work place be more sensitive to non-smokers? There are notices plastered everywhere here about not smoking near enterances because some employees have illnesses.

But yet they do it anyway! Have any of you encountered a issue like this?

walking into an empty elevator, and the reek (smell of sour moisture ) of tobacco smoke coupled with the smell of the out doors just hangs in the air. It's obvious that a smoker just came in from out side and left the elevator not long ago. Walking down the street and the cigarette smoke boiling and billowing out behind someone walking along smoking, or huddled out in front (or in back) of an office building portico makes me cough till I wretch! I look at the 'no smoking' signs that are half obscured because of the smokers huddled there.

the disappointing part is that the smoker thinks they ARE being sensitive to non smokers by just going out side. Their nostrils and sense organs have been dulled long, long ago and they literally either don't smell it, or have embraced the stench as their own.

When I started working, you could smoke at your desk, and many did. Sometimes the air was just blue with smoke in the office. Things have improved.

Merle

I dunno; my mother smoked for 20 years and stopped when I was 10, and everyone who came to visit us before that commented on the smell and I had no idea what they were talking about; I didn't smell anything. I had bronchial asthma from age 2 or 3 to age 11 or 12 or so, with coughing up phlegm and that, and after taht a snot problem until about age 18, don't know if it's totally related since my uncle also had it.

my parents were smokers. it was up to them when and where they did it. in the morning times i would have to hold my breath until i could get some air circulating in the house.

i expect that if he went off somewhere that was not near an entrance he would smell of smoke just the same. what is your suggestion on how someone would be more sensitive to you in this case?

when i was working, people were disturbing to me. not so much with smoking, but with talking and the noises that they made when they were working. i dont think that it would be possible to ask the people what liked making noise to try to be more sensative to the people what disliked hearing noise.

the logical thing i can see to do in this case would be then to take the option of setting up your environment to be more comfortable for you to the extent of being slightly insensative of the people around you. this way, everything balances out.

Last edited by Shayne on 29 Mar 2008, 12:20 pm, edited 5 times in total.

I can't stand the smell of smokers either; my sisters smokes, her hair and clothes reek of it and so does the house.

Since they don't see a problem with it, they think other people won't have a problem with it. It's natural and necessary for them so why not for others?

Obay the rules. In Newfoundland smoking is banned in all public places including public entrances to workplaces. There is a smoking area outside behind my workplace, but they are still not permitted to smoke by the door, so that people can take a few minuets for some of the smoke smell to come off.



I can see now noise can disturb me, I have my iPod on at work to counter this, but smoking is a bit different, some people have very bad allergies to it, the smell of it doesn't help.

My mother smokes.
She seems to think that it's ok to smoke inside around me and her fiance [both non-smokers] and our pets!
I have to remind her everytime she gets out a smoke, to go outside and AWAY from the doorway. I'm sick of the smell...I'm sick of the smelly ashtrays in the house...I'm sick of hearing my mother continuously cough and blame it on having a cold! ARGHH!! !

The bunch of smokers huddled around an entrance makes me hold my nose. Also the over-used ashtrays they leave behind (Yuck).

if only they would USE the ashtrays. . .I see the butts everywhere. They must think the world is their ashtray!

Merle who watched a woman smoke cigerette after cigerette and blast the state she moved into from another state for not paying for her HEART SURGERY!! I could NOT believe she kept on and on slamming the state WE lived in and she just MOVED to for not supporting her.

and the other Oregonians sitting in the bus stop that were forced to listen to her loud voice and smell her smoking were too polite and forgiving to tell her how they felt. we might be country people, but we know better than to poke a busy hornet's nest.

Smoke gets in your eyes part 2 topic

Where I work people smoke near an air intake vent and so the smoke travels through the building. I must speak to the owners and explain that where the people smoke it travels up this vent.

Honestly I think some people over-react to smokers, because they are conditioned into thinking that smoking is a terrible thing and responding to it with revulsion. Second-hand smoke can be harmful if you are exposed to it constantly, but light exposure here and there isn't going to hurt you. The same for smoking. A pack a day for a decade will hurt you, but a few here and there won't. I smoke some, about two packs a month. That volume is a little bit unhealthy, but not much.

I beg your pardon. I don't give a fig about it being healthy or un healthy, I say it STINKS!
it stinks on your clothes, your hair, your skin and your BREATH. And when you are around people that don't smoke, it is very evident that someone smells bad and it isn't you!

I grew up with people puffing filterless Lucky Strikes and Camels over my crib side. The radio and television and newspapers were full of advertisements, the movies portrayed smokers constantly and it was 10 cents to 35 cents a pack. I started smoking when I was 14, myself, because there was little regulation on age to buy tobacco. The extra added chemicals added in the last 30 years has really changed the smell of cigarette smoke, too. I struggled with smoking over the years and have been smoke free for 17 years, but that doesn't make me immune to the stench it makes on your clothing, in your hair and on your breath. Trying to catch your breath walking down the street is not enhanced by someone's cigarette smoke blowing into your lungs, no matter how minimal the 'health issues' are.

I must not be one of 'some people' you were thinking conditioned to the 'terrible thing' of smoking and I assure you, the revulsion is authenticity mine.

Merle

I'm not questioning your authenticity, but we don't form our preferences for what we do and don't like in a detached, uninfluenced way. There are reasons why some people think it stinks, and some people like the smell or at least don't mind it.

It never ceases to amaze me, the way a smoker will come to the defense of the "hobby" of cigarette smoking. I had to suffer through my teen years, in a house full of smokers, and by the time I was 19, I had to go to the E.R., coughing up blood because my lungs were too sensitive. I could never get used to it, even when I tried to ignore it. It stinks, sure. But what stinks worse, is the damage that was done to my lungs, and how the smoke made it easy for me catch pneumonia, and I am now at risk for bronchial asthma. Fortunately, in the units where I live now, there is no smoking allowed inside. Of course, smokers will rent here, even though smoking is forbidden. And of course, they have to smoke outside, and smell up the lovely outdoors.

Today was beautifully cool outdoors, and I had both my front and back doors open to catch a breeze. My neighbor decided to sit on her porch and smoke, so of course I had to shut the door, because it was blowing right through my kitchen!

I knew a lady, that whenever I complained about other people polluting around me, she would rapidly come to the defense of smokers. BTW, she suffers from COPD, and fungus on her lungs, from a lifetime smoking habit. I sincerely believe cigarette smoking ought to be listed in the DSM, LOL.

Oh, yes, one more point. Smoking is a selfish habit. Because no matter how the innocent bystander feels about it, they are forced to partake.

I can relate. Sometimes, when I have to breath it in for more than a few minutes, I end up with a whopping headache, or worse, a sinus infection. I have a health condition that causes chemical sensitivities, so I guess that makes me more vulnerable. People just don't realize how much they stink, even when they put that cigarette out and walk away from it. They smell just like an ashtray!

My point is: your right to smoke ends where my nose begins.
Respect that and we don't have a problem, if you can't respect that, expect consequences.

Merle