# Danger of secondhand smoke in close quarters **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125 "2011-05-08T03:16:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/1 "2011-05-08T03:16:26Z")
This morning I spent six hours in a turkey blind (like a small enclosed tent) with a friend who was smoking Pall Malls the entire time. I think he smoked at least a pack of them. The blind had a decent amount of ventilation but still, the smoke was pretty heavy. This guy smokes all the time and is never going to quit. If I want to spend time with him, I pretty much have to put up with the smoke, and I knew this before hand. Now I am feeling congested and have a stuffed nose. In addition, I had a bad headache earlier in the afternoon. Was this caused by the tobacco smoke? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/2 "2011-05-08T05:09:01Z")
Probably. ---
**Author:** ![CutterJohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/91b2a8/32.png) [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/3 "2011-05-08T06:09:50Z")
You might be mildly allergic cigarette smoke. And Pall Malls? Ick. Tell him if he’s going to share the blind with you and smoke, to at least get a pipe and some good, real, tobacco for it. Not a fan of cigarettes, but there are pipe tobaccos i want to burn as incense. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/4 "2011-05-08T06:14:37Z")
I smoked myself, on and off, for years during college…I never had much of a reaction to it. But then, I never got exposed to huge quantities of cigarette smoke inside a tiny space. I am starting to wonder if I inadvertendtly smoked the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes by breathing it secondhand… ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/5 "2011-05-08T06:24:45Z")
Health questions aside: You were in a blind…so the turkeys wouldn’t see you. Did it not occur to you guys that turkeys might rely on other senses as well as sight to avoid danger? Did he also bring a ghetto blaster, cause nothing brings in the Toms like some Van Halen played at 11? ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/6 "2011-05-08T06:33:18Z")
Turkeys don’t have a sense of smell. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/7 "2011-05-08T10:24:03Z")
I think some of it is psychological too. I have asthma but it’s well controlled, yet if I get near a smoker, I immediately seize up. Then about 10 minutes later I am OK again. I think the initial reaction is psychological, at least for me. It used to be everywhere you went you had smokers. Now it’s a rare occurrence outside of a personal setting. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/8 "2011-05-08T10:48:31Z")
I’m a pack-a-day smoker but I would have hated that too. To the point of trying to veto it. Or have a scheduled break from trying to fool turkeys by making him go outside to smoke. When I used to smoke in my house, I noticed that I had a kind of hangover the next morning if there was excessive smoke in the room I slept in, even if I was the one doing the smoking, so I’d imagine that yes, you felt shit because of the second-hand smoke. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/9 "2011-05-08T11:13:57Z")
The latest peril _de nos jours_. [Third-hand smoke.](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/03/health/research/03smoke.html) > [@](#): > > Parents who smoke often open a window or turn on a fan to clear the air for their children, but experts now have identified a related threat to children’s health that isn’t as easy to get rid of: third-hand smoke. > > That’s the term being used to describe the invisible yet toxic brew of gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, not to mention cushions and carpeting, that lingers long after second-hand smoke has cleared from a room. The residue includes heavy metals, carcinogens and even radioactive materials that young children can get on their hands and ingest, especially if they’re crawling or playing on the floor. > > Doctors from MassGeneral Hospital for Children in Boston coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe these chemicals in a new study that focused on the risks they pose to infants and children. The study was published in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics. I don’t smoke myself and I do have every sympathy with the OP but sometimes I think, Sheesh, enough already! Just ban the darn things rather than subject us all to this constant refrain of “ **Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! Danger!** ” ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/10 "2011-05-08T11:23:55Z")
He’s obviously trying to kill you with his anti-social, vile, selfish and completely insane habit that his pathetically weak will cannot beat. So I say you should return the favor and off him with a frozen turkey leg, then eat the evidence (the leg, not him … ok, maybe him, he is the devil incarnate after all). Or find somewhere with better ventilation. I don’t smoke indoors either, unless it’s in a smoky bar I’ve found when in Europe (still happens, occasionally!). It makes the furniture and curtains pong and also leaves me with a headache the following morning. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/11 "2011-05-08T15:49:54Z")
[It is impossible to be allergic to cigarette smoke.](http://www.airqualitytips.com/144/the-truth-about-secondhand-smoke-allergies/) > [@](#): > > All allergens (the particles that trigger allergic reactions) contain some sort of proteins produced by either by plants, fungi, animals or insects. It is the protein in allergens that trigger an allergic reaction – and truth be told, there is no protein in cigarette smoke. The combustion (burning) of the tobacco leaves, paper and additives in a cigarette destroys the chances of cigarette smoke being considered an allergen. All of the particles put off by a cigarette are carbon (not that inhaling carbon is good for you either). I suspect spending the day in the woods on a cool, pollen heavy spring day is a better explanation for your symptoms, perhaps with a weather front moving through to explain a sinus headache the next day. I can also think of a better explanation than second-hand smoke for a next-day headache after spending an evening in a smoky bar. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/12 "2011-05-08T16:17:00Z")
We go to a house full of smokers each Christmas Eve, and I spend each Christmas morning with a smoke hangover (family obligation, not by free choice). My smoke hangover is a headache and upset stomach. I don’t think my nose is very stuffed up, but I take a daily steroid inhaler for my hay fever. [Second-hand smoke is a known human carcinogen -](http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/secondhand-smoke)there is no safe level for exposure. It could be one time, or a thousand times before you develop cancer - your best bet is limiting your exposure to it. Exposure to other known human carcinogens (like benzene and asbestos) is strictly controlled in workplaces; somehow cigarette smoke gets a pass that it doesn’t deserve. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/13 "2011-05-09T09:08:35Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Turkeys don’t have a sense of smell. That’s the domestic ones that are raised for Thanksgiving dinners – it has been bred out of them. But wild turkeys, the kind people would be hunting from a blind, still have a pretty good sense of smell. (Though nowhere near as good as their eyesight, which is why a blind is needed.) ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/14 "2011-05-09T09:16:26Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > [Second-hand smoke is a known human carcinogen -](http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancercauses/tobaccocancer/secondhand-smoke)there is no safe level for exposure. This makes no sense to me. All carcinogens have levels that we consider safe, even the ones you mention later in your post. The idea of safe isn’t that it doesn’t hurt you, but that the risk of problems is small. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/15 "2011-05-11T02:45:27Z")
My Mother In Law is in late stage emphysema despite never being a smoker. She sat across from a heavy smoker for many years at work. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/16 "2011-05-13T02:10:16Z")
Lose the friend or refuse to get into the small smoky space with him if you value your health. I had to work in an office just down the hall from the end-of-work-day assembly room for dozens of fieldcrew workers, most of whom smoked. I never smoked. I now, 11 years later, have COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). ---
**Author:** ![SeldomSeen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ba0ec/32.png) [@SeldomSeen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeldomSeen)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/17 "2011-05-13T02:21:24Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > That’s the domestic ones that are raised for Thanksgiving dinners – it has been bred out of them. > > But wild turkeys, the kind people would be hunting from a blind, still have a pretty good sense of smell. (Though nowhere near as good as their eyesight, which is why a blind is needed.) Possibly relevant here…Peter Hathaway Capstick, writer and African safari guide tells in _Death in the Long Grass_ of hunting leopards from a blind - leopards being one of the smartest and most difficult animals to hunt. He would tell his clients to smoke as much as they wanted to while in the blind, but once they started to light new smokes from the old ones and chain-smoke. His reasoning was that if the leopard got downwind or close enough to smell ambient smoke he could also smell the hunters and would be gone anyway. But the leopard’s hearing was so acute that he could hear the scratch of a match or the click of a lighter a half-mile away. _“Smoke as much as you want, but you can only strike a light once!”_ ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/18 "2011-05-13T02:46:19Z")
This guy will never lose me as a friend but this Saturday I will ask him if he could cut down on the smoking - not totally stop, but I’d be happy with half as much - if we are in the blind again. More likely we will just run-and-gun. I’ve never had much of a problem with secondhand smoke out in the open, just in a tight space. It really was pretty dreadful. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/19 "2011-05-13T03:31:12Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > This makes no sense to me. All carcinogens have levels that we consider safe, even the ones you mention later in your post. The idea of safe isn’t that it doesn’t hurt you, but that the risk of problems is small. I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea that all carcinogens have safe levels; human carcinogens don’t have safe levels of exposure. We limit our exposure to them because we don’t know at exactly what level it goes from “no big deal” to “now you’re going to get cancer.” Ah, doing more research, I think you’re talking about “acceptable risk level,” not “safe level of exposure.” I believe an acceptable risk level is used when we choose to not completely avoid exposure (for example benzene, which is used in manufacturing processes), but we can (more-or-less) completely avoid exposure to second-hand smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/20 "2011-05-13T16:55:00Z")
When I was a little kid, we always had Christmas and Thanksgiving at my grandma’s dank, dark, poorly-ventilated house. There must have been so much tar and tobacco smoke saturating the walls and shag carpet from the 50+ years they had lived there… every single time I would visit there my eyes would burn and tear up and I’d have to close them. I always fell asleep pretty fast after that. I suppose there could have been a mold problem (though my grandma and uncle lived there for years and it didn’t kill or appear to harm them, so probably not). Honestly, I think it was just the smoke and tar residue which had literally never been cleaned from the walls, long-ass shag rug, or ceiling (because my eyes would always start burning right away even if nobody was actively smoking yet). And then of course, after dinner my mom, dad, uncle, aunt, other uncle, and grandma would light up real actual cigarettes, and the place would practically transform into a billiards lounge after-hours. I’m a smoker now. While I suspect it wouldn’t bother me nearly as much these days as it did when I was a tender babe, that house was still fucking grody as hell. If it weren’t for that experience, I would be vastly more skeptical of the effects of tertiary(thirdhand? whatever) smoke. As it is, I can buy it. It certainly did make me feel shitty. I won’t say it causes cancer, but I’m not saying it doesn’t, either. But whether it’s a carcinogen or not, it CAN make you feel like shit. Saying otherwise is… naive. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125.md?page=2)