# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/21 "2011-05-13T20:49:08Z")
I was born during the sixties when just about everybody smoked. My parents, and my friends’ parents. (Admittedly, working class background.) Indoors all the time growing up every kid was exposed to tobacco smoke. When going on a trip, yup, parents smoked in the car, you arrived, there the hosts were, smoking. Going to a restaurant, smoke smoke smoke. Nobody thought about it. Pretty much a whole generation of kids exposed to this. Second hand smoke is not good, and one should never expose a child to tobacco smoke, naturally, we know that. – But when reading about second hand smoke today, I can’t help but wondering, shouldn’t we all be dead by now? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/22 "2011-05-13T21:00:24Z")
> [@Wakinyan](#): > > But when reading about second hand smoke today, I can’t help but wondering, shouldn’t we all be dead by now? No, it’s more like “shouldn’t we all have better lung capacity than we do?” And for some folks, that loss of lung capacity due to 2nd hand smoke significantly reduces their quality of life. Emphysema (COPD) is not a lot of fun, especially after it progresses into its later stages. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/23 "2011-05-13T21:07:48Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Turkeys don’t have a sense of smell. Deer do, don’t they? I’ve heard of hunters smoking in a deer stand, and it seems to me it would give them away. Maybe Sledomseen’s theory holds for deer, too. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/24 "2011-05-13T21:17:16Z")
> [@Wakinyan](#): > > IBut when reading about second hand smoke today, I can’t help but wondering, shouldn’t we all be dead by now? Well, there’s always the folks trotted out to show us how smoking really isn’t all that bad. “Gramps smoked three packs a day for 70 years, and died at 95 when a tree fell on him.” So undoubtedly there are ancient starry decreps who’ve lived with a heavy smoker all their lives and are (supposedly) perfectly healthy. Personally I’d just as soon play better odds. > [@Argent Towers](#): > > 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 this would make for an extremely dull movie: _BrokeLung Mountain_. ---
**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 13, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125/25 "2011-05-13T21:19:47Z")
> [@Wakinyan](#): > > I was born during the sixties when just about everybody smoked. No, it just seemed that way. At the peak, in 1961-62, only 61% of adult men smoked. (Now, less than 1/4 do.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/danger-of-secondhand-smoke-in-close-quarters/581125.md?page=1)