# Locked in a room with someone who smokes **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 20, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034 "2014-09-20T19:13:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/1 "2014-09-20T19:13:37Z")
You are locked in an average-size residential room with someone who smokes. However, you get to choose the type of smoker. What do you choose–cigarette, pipe, or cigar? Or in other words, what type of smoke is least offensive to you? I would choose pipe. (Note: I thought about including things like marijuana, but decided to make this tobacco only.) ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/2 "2014-09-20T19:19:19Z")
Going with pipe too. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/3 "2014-09-20T19:19:33Z")
I smoked cigarettes for many years so that kind of smoke wouldn’t be offensive, but it would make me want to smoke cigarettes. I’ve smoked cigars and pipes too, and if you’re actually smoking them I found more people complained about them. Depends on what kind of cigars or pipe tobacco you used. The ones that bothered other people the least were the ones that tasted the worst to me. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/4 "2014-09-20T19:59:27Z")
Cigarette smoke comes across to me as very harsh and acrid, and even being near someone who has recently smoked will make my asthma act up. My father went through a cigar-smoking phase. (He’d quit smoking cigarettes 15 years earlier and insisted that cigars did not make him a “smoker” again. Of course, after a couple of years on cigars, he switched back to cigarettes. That’s my father for you, but that’s another topic.) While still not pleasant, cigar-smoking was annoying more on the same as the smoke my BBQ puts out, and I can handle that. With cigars, I can even imagine someone possibly liking them, the same way that I can appreciate how mesquite, hickory and apple wood all produce smoke with different scents and flavors. So I would certainly prefer a cigar to a cigarette. I don’t have any direct experience with pipes. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/5 "2014-09-20T20:21:06Z")
I have asthma due to my parents’ smoking a lot around me as a kid, so I wouldn’t want to be in a room where someone’s smoking cigarettes. Cigars I think I’d find a bit unpleasant. I sheepishly admit, though, that I do like the smell of pipe smoke, so I chose that in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/6 "2014-09-20T20:55:30Z")
All would be horrible. However, cigars and pipes make me nauseous, and I’d rather gag and choke instead of gagging, choking and vomiting. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/7 "2014-09-20T21:05:44Z")
Is she good-looking? ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/8 "2014-09-20T21:41:29Z")
Pipe. It’s more aromatic and less astringent to me. Plus cigarette smokers sometimes chain smoke enough to fill the room and a cigar can take a good long time to smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/9 "2014-09-20T21:43:24Z")
I don’t think anybody could stand smoking in a closed room, but I voted pipe because they go out so much people spend more time fiddling with them than they do actually smoking. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/10 "2014-09-20T23:09:27Z")
Cigar smoke can make me throw up, so pipe. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/11 "2014-09-20T23:12:03Z")
Doesn’t matter. I would not allow them to smoke. It would come to unreasonable violence if need be. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/12 "2014-09-20T23:25:10Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > Doesn’t matter. I would not allow them to smoke. It would come to unreasonable violence if need be. This needs to be an option. Even lingering residua in a room where people have been smoking can make my skin burn and my nose run. I have never been tested for a tobacco allergy, but I’m pretty sure I have one, and I’m allergic to a lot of grasses and flowers, so it’s not unlikely. Wood smoke can choke me up too, particularly if someone is burning green wood, and some kinds of incense really bother me. I’m fine with some, others, almost as bad as tobacco, so I’m guessing it the ones with pollen or grasses (not that kind) in them. Oddly, second-hand pot smoke doesn’t bother me nearly as much as tobacco, but that may be because people tend to pass around one joint, as opposed to each of eight people having their own cigarette. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/13 "2014-09-20T23:58:33Z")
Pipe, in a heartbeat. Cigars are intense and room-filling and can make me feel actively nauseated at times. My experience is that most pipe smoke isn’t like that at all, and has a spicier, more incense-y effect. Might depend on the size of the room, but I’ve been around pipe smokers and never even thought to complain or leave the room. Cigarettes are milder, but it’s a mild unpleasant scent, whereas I find pipes more like a strong neutral-to-pleasant scent. ---
**Author:** ![jayrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/47e85d/32.png) [@jayrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayrey)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/14 "2014-09-21T01:14:14Z")
None of the above. I would just kill the son of a bitch and be done with it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/15 "2014-09-21T01:20:48Z")
Pipe. Not only does the tobacco smell better, it 's easier and more fun to shove it up his smoking ass. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/16 "2014-09-21T03:26:38Z")
This thread is a time warp and I am not even that old. How did you people that are threatening violence to smokers survive in the 80’s or earlier? People used to smoke everywhere: workplaces, restaurants, bars, trains, planes, cars, houses and everywhere else. Europe and Asia are still like that. I lived through the transition just like I assume most of you did. This isn’t some foreign concept. I am not a smoker anymore but you can become completely unaware of it very quickly if the people around you are doing it all the time. Cigarette smoke becomes about as notable as the sound of an air conditioner after a while - you aren’t even aware of it. Cigars and pipes may smell better at least superficially but the smoke is much more thick and stronger. I voted for cigarettes just because millions if not billions of people have lived through second-hand cigarette smoke over the years without much incident. Cigar and pipe smoking usually draws undo attention. It certainly isn’t a good thing but it also isn’t like tear gas bomb going off like some of your are making it out to be. ---
**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:** [September 21, 2014, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/17 "2014-09-21T03:51:18Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > People used to smoke everywhere: workplaces, restaurants, bars, trains, planes, cars, houses and everywhere else. Yes. Isn’t it amazing that was tolerated for so long? > [@](#): > > I am not a smoker anymore but you can become completely unaware of it very quickly if the people around you are doing it all the time. Funny, I never developed a tolerance for other people’s smoke. And I’ve never had asthma or another chronic condition that’s worsened by secondhand smoke. The unlisted poll answer I thought of was “kick their ass until they stop smoking.” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/18 "2014-09-21T04:46:51Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > This thread is a time warp and I am not even that old. How did you people that are threatening violence to smokers survive in the 80’s or earlier? Yeah, I survived. It was tough, hence the threats of violence now. You wanna bust my nose with your smoke? I’ll bust yours with my fist. ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/19 "2014-09-21T04:57:08Z")
Smoked long & hard, used all three of the choices. Quit once for 12 years and went back again. Now about 16 years since I have smoked. Other people smoking do not bother me. My wife smokes. If it get to the point my eyes are watering, I’ll try to get clear but I had the same reaction when I smoked. I have been in hundreds & hundreds of AA meeting where I had to squat down and look under the smoke to see who was talking 15 feet away. So, in this locked room, I don’t care who is smoking what, I’ll just lay down and take a nap. They will cave before they will be bothering me. I guess I am just a bit more tolerant about it than most folks who have quit. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034/20 "2014-09-21T06:01:47Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > This thread is a time warp and I am not even that old. How did you people that are threatening violence to smokers survive in the 80’s or earlier? By avoiding people, covering my face & breathing through cloth, hanging my head out of windows, and choking & occasionally vomiting when I couldn’t. > [@Shagnasty](#): > > I am not a smoker anymore but you can become completely unaware of it very quickly if the people around you are doing it all the time. You can, perhaps. I was raised in the home of a smoker, with relatives who smoked and never did. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/locked-in-a-room-with-someone-who-smokes/699034.md?page=2)