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Guidelines for Smokers
in the 21st Century: smoke consdiderately
Smoke Considerately
My husband and I are both heavy smokers who have come to realize how offensive smokers can be to non-smokers, now a majority of the population, and are sure there are many smokers out there who are as ignorant of this as we were. We are writers and have minimal public contact, particularly given the flexibility of our time, which allows us to function in many ways to avoid mainstream public and workplace traffic. We have become aware of just how badly one who smokes smells to those who do not, and that we carry the smell of smoke on our clothes, skin, hair and breath for hours.
Coming out of a car and extinguishing the cigarette before you enter a restaurant or work place may meet the legal no smoking law, but smokers offend all and anyone we contact, leave the smell of smoke in a room even after we leave, and, if we smoke heavily or have been in a closed car, a person with asthma is liable to have an attack just because we walked by or said hello.
We admit that smoking is not the only public social offence,
but we are not guilty of the others: just smoking. Smokers are obliged to pay escalating
cigarette taxes but do not have the right to smoke in most public locations;
even the beach is being placed off limits to our butts (no pun intended). Too
bad for us: when we smoke, we smell and, as smokers, we have given the
non-smoking public good reason to vote those taxes and restrictions on us;
smokers could and should exert a lot more control on how much smoke smell we
carry, and subject the rest of the world to.
The molecules of smoke and its smell are in the same size
range of many viruses. They easily disperse through the air, and closet doors
offer little protection. Air filters can’t trap smoke particles because they are
smaller than the openings that let the air flow through the filter.
Because we smoke, we usually have a stale cigarette odor about us. The odor clings to the clothes, hair, hands, cars and homes. If we smoke around our children, they smell, too. Usually the smoker doesn't notice; most smokers are desensitized to the smell of smoke. Just as garlic or alcohol ingested prevents us from smelling it on our own breath, and provide us with immunity to the smell of it on others, smokers can not smell smoke, unless it is overwhelming, on others; non-smokers can smell it on a smoker as much ten feet away. We often do not realize that the cigarette we disposed of might as well be coming back in with us from break or lunch. Our clothing, hair and breath smell after a cigarette break. The smoke in our lungs is exhaled into the air of co-workers, clients, and clerks for the next two to three hours.
It is truly amazing that people who are otherwise fussy
about the way they are groomed, dressed or present themselves will allow
themselves to stink. It is rude to stink, whether it is from smoke, not bathing,
or too much perfume/cologne. Most people
will never tell you that you smell bad, and they surely won't tell you if you
are being left out of something or not chosen for something because of it.
After smoke smell is an issue that brings about strong anti-smoking sentiment and it is justified. If we want to avoid escalating taxes on our cigarettes and personal and professional costs, both social and financial, it is up to those of us who smoke to keep from offending others.
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