I’m not sure if I posted this here or not but my wife and I quit smoking (except the occasional cigar, and even that not in our new house) for good back in January. In case anyone is interested, I used the gum; in fact I still have half a box. Anyway since I work from home I don’t come into contact with smokers much. So I’m standing in a parking lot yesterday and I smell this well smoke. I never realized how odd cigarette smoke smells. I couldn’t even identify it for a moment. How in the world could I have not noticed it before, or did my mind just edit it out?
Sure 'nuff. I don’t get the “oh, that smells so disgusting” thing, or the “oh god, I’d kill for one of them right now” thing…it’s just sort of “Hmm…someone had a smoke here in the last 15 minutes”.
I’m amazed now at how long it’ll stay in the air, too. In no way was I aware of it when I was a smoker, but man, on a windless evening, that stuff lingers.
We non-smokers call it a stink, pong, or reek.
Courtesy of nicotine addiction, that’s precisely it, yes. It requires that you not notice how appalling the whole process of smoking is, from smell to ash to littering.
My father was diagnosed with lung cancer in '97, stopped smoking ( :smack: ) and making stupid jokes like “given how much I smoke and for how long I’ve done it, if all that stuff about losing 5 minutes was true I’d be dead”. Died in '00. In '03, the curtains in the living room still smelled of cigarrete smoke; we wash them twice a year.
He smelled cigarettes made of cigar tobacco, not Virginia; I always have been able to recognize both kinds by smell, although I’ve never been a smoker.
It is very strange how your sense of smell (and taste!) comes back to you…
3 years smoke-free as of Aug 19.
11 days smoke free today. After 35 years. AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Cold turkey.
Stay with it, Jali! You can do it!
Congratulations Stuffy and Stuffywife! Use all that money you are saving from not smoking and treat yourself to something you’ll enjoy far more!
You know what made my mom quit smoking?
When I told her that I could tell with my eyes shut which Christmas package came from her and my dad, because when I’d open it, stale cigarette air would come out of it.
She was more appalled about sending people stinky packages than she was by the idea she could get cancer from smoking. But hey, whatever works!
Smokers absolutely have a depressed olifactory sense. This is part of the reason they can’t understand why non-smokers are so particular about having a non-smoking motel room etc.
Something that I’ve been noticing lately is that I can really smell the chemicals in cigarettes (as opposed to just the tobaccoey goodness), especially on fabric, like say when I wake up in the morning. I don’t know if it’s because the generic ones I smoke have more additives or if all cigs have more in them these days, but I don’t ever recall noticing it in the past.
And romansperson, I totally get how your mom felt. I’m closer than I’ve ever been since I started (28 years ago)to stopping precisely because I’m tired of my house smelling. Being somewhat of a loner and having the “if you don’t like it, don’t visit me” attitude, I never much cared, but now that it’s starting to annoy me, it may be time.
Thanks. I think the motivation for us is that we knew we’d be buying a house this summer. We both talked about not smoking in the new house then one Saturday on a whim I picked up the gum. Like I said I never finished the box.
WOOKINPANUB:
I think that may be it, it’s the artificialness (is that a word) I think I was noticing.
I quit six years ago and it smells wonderfull when someone lights up.
True, but not so wonderful when they put it out and it lingers on their clothes…
I smoke and I can’t stand the smell of smoke. It does stink and it makes you stink. Of course I only notice it when I’m in a smoke-free environment, but I notice it.
The other day my friend and I were smoking in bed (that’s really safe, innit?), and I don’t usually smoke in my bedroom. When I went to bed I had to Febreeze the pillows so I could sleep w/o having to smell smoke.
Perhaps I just don’t smoke enough.
But for me, not as gawdawful, gagging, possum choking as most folks here say. 
I didn’t like the ashtray odor when I smoked, but it smells no worse now.
Aww man! I quit in April, and I was really hoping that’d wear off and I’d begin to hate the smell. Dammit.
I dunno, I think it’s pretty possum-choking. I remember a guy I knew a long time ago pulled out a cigarette in my living room. I said “oh, you can’t smoke that in here. Please smoke it outside if you need to.” He said ok, then proceded to light it. I said “Um!?!?” and started to sputter, and he walked to the door and said “what? I’m going outside!”
The house smelled for weeks just from that 10 seconds or so that he had his lit cigarette in the room. He couldn’t understand why I was pissed off.
Everyone is different. Plenty of people find themselves hating the smell just a few weeks after quitting, while others take much longer.
Personally, I think a lot of it has to do with how much exposure you get to smokers on a daily basis.
I quit a year ago last May and I am turned off by smoke smells now. I guess I could say I hate it. I hate it in close spaces (like bars, or walking behind someone who is smoking) when people light up - it really does smell disgusting. I can smell smokers’ vehicles when they pass me when I’m walking or biking, even if they don’t have the windows rolled all the way down. That’s what gets me the most - the people who smoke in their cars and drive around with the windows down - what a reek that is coming out of those cars!
You could get a job with the cops as a drug-smelling-opalcat.