Everything smells like cigarettes, WTF?

I’ve been sick with everything but the flu, going on 2 months now. Just one thing after another.

Right now, besides a little sinus congestion, I detect the everpresent faint scent of cigarette smoke. It’s been going on for about a week, it happens everywhere, and there’s nobody smoking near me, so I’m certain that it’s some kind of symptom. I despise the smell, so it’s driving me nuts.

Bearing in mind that you are not my doctor:

  1. What the heck is this about?
  2. Can I do anything about it?

Thanks.

A sinus infection can make everything smell bad, really really bad, like rotting food everywhere bad. Stale smoke doesn’t seem too much of a stretch.

My friend is going through the same thing right now. Dealing with sinus issues, constant faint smell of smoke, not a smoker and not around smokers.

He googled it and decided it was common and not anything to worry about.

Excellent advice so far. To remedy the issue, try flushing out your sinuses with a neti-pot.

Alternatively, your house could have mice. Mice who smoke. Check your baseboards.

I have experienced this too. I can’t remember if it was just my regular seasonal allergies or a rhinovirus that brought it on, but it was disturbing and lasted a number of weeks, despite medication and frequent sinus irrigation. It resolved on its own. Yuck, hope it never comes back.

Oddly or not, I am a smoker and when I have a cold, cigarette smoke doesn’t smell like cigarette smoke

I had a sinus thing going on recently and I smelled…human poop. For a LONG time. Long enough that I finally cornered my best friends and made them smell me, to see if it was me, because I could NOT get away from it.
It drove me crazy for a couple of months and gradually faded as my sinuses cleared up.
So my guess is, it’ll go away. (But it’ll drive you crazy in the meantime!)

Parosmia. Who knew?

Once again, a seemingly uniquely weird phenomenon turns out to be relatively common. It’s nice to know I’m just smellucinating and not cracking up.

Thanks guys.

I had rhinitis that resulted in perceiving bad smells (including a sort of burnt-hair aroma). The doctor prescribed a steroid nasal spray, saying this should cure it in a couple of weeks, but it actually cleared it up almost immediately - which suggests it may just have been the non-pharmaceutical ingredients that did the trick.

A long while later, after a bad cold, I had a repeat case of the same symptoms, so I just went and bought a pure saline nasal spray (intended for use on infants with blocked noses) and used it once a day. It cleared up the problem just as quickly as the steroid spray had done.

Do be a bit cautious with the irrigation. It can spread an infection farther up and in, if you have one.
It does help clear out the nasty-smell phenom, though.