I’m trying to quit smoking via will power. I occasionally use nicotine replacements like gum but don’t like the side effects so it’s mostly just cutting down and weaning myself off.
I had started up a conversation with a guy on OKCupid and we went on a couple of dates. Things went great, but he complained that he could still smell smoke on me and it was aggravating his lungs (he’s allergic to smoke).
Now, I hadn’t smoked in 12 hours and had showered, brushed my teeth, gargled, and worn clean, freshly laundered clothes and just generally hadn’t been exposed to any smoke in the meantime. But he insisted he could occasionally smell it on my breath, and was rather frustrated by it.
Does anyone have any experience with this? It’s putting a damper on an otherwise great time.
My understanding is that you are still exhaling smoke “smell” from the residual in your lungs. A process that could take quite sometime to rectify itself. The residual tars, and other junk that collect in your lungs, you know, the cancer causing stuff, will be around for awhile, slowly lowering in intensity. 12 house aint enough.
Even if your clothes are freshly laundered, if you smoked inside your house, then the smoke smell will linger and infiltrate your clean items. Smoke smell lingers for quite a while. I don’t remember how long it took for the house to quit smelling like smoke after my husband quit, but I do remember that I’d go out and come back in, and the smoke smell would hit me.
Your body will also smell and taste of smoke until you completely quit smoking. Not just quit for a few hours, but quit for weeks.
The “aggravating his lungs” claim sounds a bit prima-donna-ish. I don’t think a lingering smell is enough to cause an allergic reaction (someone can correct me if I’m wrong). He probably smelled the odor on you, which caused him to overact and become anxious because of a past experience with smoke triggering a reaction.
Many people with lung diseases are sensitive to smoke and its byproducts. Asthmatics, people with COPD, cystic fibrosis, etc. may all be affected negatively by old secondhand smoke.
I went to my uncle’s funeral a year or so ago. It was the first time I had been to their house in years. My aunt and uncle smoked heavily for about 40 years, then quit a couple years before his death. The house still smelled of smoke, not a whole lot, but enough for me to notice as soon as I walked in the door.
Thanks for the info everyone. I think the problem was what dragonlady mentioned- exhaling residual smokiness. He didn’t mind being close to me, but occasionally would wrinkle his nose when I exhaled while kissing him.
So, as you can see, we hit it off except for that dealbreaker.
Oh well. I’ll add “potential boyfriend repellent” to the long list of reasons why I’m quitting.
I smoke a pipe. It has a number of advantages, the main one being that is smells good. Even non-smokers enjoy the smell of pipe tobacco smoke. It’s entirely different from cigarettes, which smell like a burning tire dump. One also does not inhale pipe smoke (doing so ruins the flavour) so tar tends not to collect in the lungs the way it does with cigarettes. Of course, pipe smoking comes with its own risks (mouth and tongue cancer, tooth decay, bent teeth from the pipe stem, et al.) but any lingering smell is likely to trigger pleasant associations of grandfathers and Old Spice on thick sweaters.
During the last months of our relationship, I didn’t smoke in the presence of my GF, sometimes for entire weekends. But she knew that I had resumed smoking because she could not only smell it on my skin, but on her pillows. Apparently it was coming out of my pores.
I have asthma myself, and pipe smoke doesn’t trigger it. Nor for that matter does every brand of cigarette. Some are worse than others; Camels trigger me instantly, and the black market native cigarettes make me wheeze and gasp so badly that I need my puffer to breathe. I had a roommate who would sneak cigarettes even though he had agreed to smoke outside; he smoked the native ciggies and I’d wake up in the middle of the night having to fight for each breath, clawing for my puffer and sounding like I was trying to drink the last few drops of a thick milkshake through a straw. (He refused to believe me when I told him his sneaking cigarettes were risking my life; eventually he stopped paying rent, refused to leave, and turned my home into a crackhouse. I had to recruit a half-dozen large comrades to perform an eviction.)
I have no doubt that smokers “stink” lingers for a good long while. Clothes, skin, lungs, bloodstream, you name it…
I also have no doubt that some people actually do have a real physical reaction to said “stink”
Having said THAT, the percentage of people that have a real reaction other than “I dont care for it” are probably IMO about as high as chubby folks that have REAL metabolism (or whatever problem) that keeps them from keeping weight off or not loosing it.
I have a book that belonged to my father. I’ve had it for three years. It still smells of tobacco smoke. Yes, the smell lingers, and is near-impossible to get out of =somethings. At least people renew themselves…