# Non-smokers: How rampant and how deep is the smoker hate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 27, 2012, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317 "2012-11-27T22:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/221 "2012-12-23T02:38:51Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Lay off the insults in this forum. _What?_ **Siam Sam** gives ‘nah-nah-nah-nah-nah’ replies to my reasonable request for an explanation of how in fact these changes are ‘working’ - and it’s just me who earns a reprimand? ---
**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:** [December 23, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/222 "2012-12-23T15:04:04Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > What could explain that? Inaccurate reporting about how carefully they refrain? That’s one hypothesis. One with a bit more evidence to it is the hypothesis that the pathogenic ingredients in smoke linger on the smoker’s hair, clothing and skin in high enough concentrations to affect the growing, developing children that live with them. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/223 "2012-12-23T15:16:31Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > That’s one hypothesis. > > One with a bit more evidence to it is the hypothesis that the pathogenic ingredients in smoke linger on the smoker’s hair, clothing and skin in high enough concentrations to affect the growing, developing children that live with them. How do the investigators control for non-parental exposure? Daycare workers, teachers, etc can be smokers. Seems like a difficult hypothesis to study. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/224 "2012-12-23T16:29:32Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > How do the investigators control for non-parental exposure? Daycare workers, teachers, etc can be smokers. Seems like a difficult hypothesis to study. AFAIK, most present studies are epidemiological and retrospective. One tries to match them as well as one can as for variables. And if you have a population of kids who are in school/daycare and whose parents don’t smoke at all vs another population of kids in school/daycare and whose parents do smoke, but not in the house or around the kids, and you see that the kids in the latter group have more respiratory disease than the kids in the former group, what’s the most logical conclusion based on observed data? Most would conclude that it’s the fact that the parents smoke that makes the difference, rather than invoke special pleading and saying that it’s more likely the children of smokers had teachers/daycare workers more likely to be smokers than the children of nonsmokers did. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/225 "2012-12-23T20:45:46Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > AFAIK, most present studies are epidemiological and retrospective. One tries to match them as well as one can as for variables. > > And if you have a population of kids who are in school/daycare and whose parents don’t smoke at all vs another population of kids in school/daycare and whose parents do smoke, but not in the house or around the kids, and you see that the kids in the latter group have more respiratory disease than the kids in the former group, what’s the most logical conclusion based on observed data? > > Most would conclude that it’s the fact that the parents smoke that makes the difference, rather than invoke special pleading and saying that it’s more likely the children of smokers had teachers/daycare workers more likely to be smokers than the children of nonsmokers did. Or, as we both know, Doc- addicts are heavily into denial. I know a number of people who claim they are not smokers- as well, they are “trying to quit and they\* have\* cut down, right?” ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/226 "2012-12-23T21:21:38Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Most would conclude that it’s the fact that the parents smoke that makes the difference, rather than invoke special pleading and saying that it’s more likely the children of smokers had teachers/daycare workers more likely to be smokers than the children of nonsmokers did. Agree. Just curious how variables were being handled. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2012, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/227 "2012-12-23T21:25:58Z")
The (epidemiologic?) study I’d like to see is one comparing the level of “smoker hate” back in, say, the 1970s (when antismoking regulations were all but nonexistent) to the level of disdain held by nonsmokers toward smokers today. On the one hand, given abundant research findings about harm associated with secondhand smoke you might expect greater hostility towards recalcitrant smokers today. On the other hand, public opinion and the regulatory climate has shifted so markedly against smokers and the right to non-smoke filled air in public is so well established that bad feelings against smokers ought to have subsided markedly. It may well be a draw. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/228 "2012-12-23T22:27:19Z")
I do not care at all if other people smoke. I wouldn’t date a smoker, but that’s it. > [@DrDeth](#): > > Smoking \*\*kills \*\*other people. SHS **kills**. This is like saying “Firing off guns at random into crowds is a minor annoyance.”. You cannot be serious. > [@gracer](#): > > But smokers do it mid-conversation too! You’ll be talking and suddenly they say: “Sorry, I know you don’t smoke, so I’ll just go and have a cigarette over there.” And then walk away. And that’s supposed to be polite, because they walked away. Well, lighting up right there is rude too, but so is leaving a conversation because you can’t do without your fix. The only acceptable answer is to NOT smoke. So then you’re against rude behavior. Some people will stop a conversation because they need to refill their drink, or somebody they know walks into the room. I don’t have anything against people who drink or have friends; I have something against assholes. > [@gracer](#): > > “There is no risk-free level of contact with secondhand smoke; even brief exposure can be harmful to health.” > > Try saying to a smoker. They’ll say: “So go away” and smile at you. Oh, come on. That’s funny and you know it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/229 "2012-12-24T01:25:03Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > I do not care at all if other people smoke. I wouldn’t date a smoker, but that’s it. > > You cannot be serious. > > So then you’re against rude behavior. . 50000 deaths a year- that’s **Fifty Thousand** dead- is more than “rude behavior”. It’s negligent manslaughter. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/230 "2012-12-24T01:48:40Z")
Smokers don’t disgust me, but the act of smoking sure does. I used to smoke and now cannot stand it or being too close to people who smoke. A whiff of it evokes a certain visceral disgust/recoil that I have trouble controlling. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/231 "2012-12-24T02:03:54Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > So then you’re against rude behavior. Some people will stop a conversation because they need to refill their drink, or somebody they know walks into the room. I don’t have anything against people who drink or have friends; I have something against assholes. Yep. If the tobacco plant went extinct tomorrow, the people who blow smoke in your face would be cutting you off in traffic and farting in line at McDonald’s instead. ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/232 "2012-12-24T02:34:24Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 50000 deaths a year- that’s **Fifty Thousand** dead- is more than “rude behavior”. It’s negligent manslaughter. Bingo. The effects of free radicals via second hand smoke are clear. It is not a question of whether or not your health is damaged by second hand smoke, - the only question is the level of damage. ---
**Author:** ![cougar58](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cougar58](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cougar58)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/233 "2012-12-24T02:41:55Z")
my aunt, a chain smoker most her life, came down with terminal LC. She was on a portable oxygen tank. It killed her. We always had Xmas at her house every year, as well as thanksgiving…she never once thought to not smoke in front of us young kids…nor did her many siblings and other relatives. The year she had the oxy tank & diagnosis, my brother had just started smoking for the first time. So he didn’t think twice about lighting up at Xmas in her house… Everyone shamed him big time, and asked him to never smoke in her house. Despite her also smoking in my parents house for decades while visiting. Goose / Gander? ---
**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:** [December 24, 2012, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/234 "2012-12-24T06:15:09Z")
We’re going to go off tomorrow evening for another Christmas Eve smokefest at my husband’s aunt’s house, where anywhere from two to six smokers will be puffing away all evening long, in the house. I’m just getting over bronchitis, and the last thing I need is an evening of secondhand smoke, but to protest over the indoor smoking or not go would create too much family drama, so we just go and suck it up (and take a shower when we get home). It blows my mind that smokers will still puff away when they have a house full of non-smokers - these are very nice people, but I don’t think it has ever occurred to them that the non-smokers truly hate being around their smoky asses, and we would LOVE it if they could manage to smoke outside for a few hours each year. ---
**Author:** ![gooftroopag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gooftroopag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gooftroopag)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/235 "2012-12-24T17:32:39Z")
> [@Askthepizzaguy](#): > > Imagine you’re a child growing up in a house with two smokers. > > Imagine that every night at the dinner table, the parents light up and blow smoke in the face of the child if the child visibly gags at the smoke. > > Imagine that on long trips, they roll up the windows and chain smoke, and the rear passenger side window doesn’t open because it is a van. > > Now imagine it’s one of the reasons I don’t speak to my parents. This was my childhood. My mom and stepdad were chain smokers and the smoke hung in the house like a fog. I was constantly pestering them as a child to quit, especially after watching my father’s sister die of lung cancer. My paternal grandfather also died of lung cancer, so I’m rather paranoid that I’m going to develop it - so I stay away. The last couple of times I was at my mom’s place I suffered from allergies and a sneezing fit all night, it doesn’t matter if I shower and wash all the clothes afterwards, I’m suffering for awhile. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2012, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/236 "2012-12-24T21:57:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > 50000 deaths a year- that’s **Fifty Thousand** dead- is more than “rude behavior”. It’s negligent manslaughter. Ya, okay. So standing next to someone who’s smoking is the same as being shot at. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/237 "2012-12-25T00:34:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yep. If the tobacco plant went extinct tomorrow, the people who blow smoke in your face would be cutting you off in traffic and farting in line at McDonald’s instead. I’m not sure I agree with this. I know smokers who would never think of farting in line or cutting you off in traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kansas\_Beekeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kansas_Beekeeper)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/238 "2012-12-25T03:39:19Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > I’m not sure I agree with this. I know smokers who would never think of farting in line or cutting you off in traffic. It’s been years and years since I smoked. I did not understand then how rude I was being. I wish I could apologize to those I was rude to. ---
**Author:** ![gunchris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@gunchris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gunchris)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/239 "2012-12-25T04:21:47Z")
I used to not let anyone smoke in my home, I changed that policy. Attractive young women that I have a chance of getting lucky with can smoke. All others are going outside. I hate smokers that force their kids to breathe that crap in though, but there is a cute single mom whom I would keep my mouth shut for. If I ever get lucky I will tell her she needs to stop poisoning her daughter after the first five or six times. If she doesn’t let me get any soon I’m just going to tell her anyway. ---
**Author:** ![dragonfly29](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonfly29](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonfly29)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317/240 "2016-04-07T14:41:13Z")
I don’t hate all smokers, just the inconsiderate ones. The smokers who willingly expose pets and non-smokers to that toxic crap. Or the ones who will smoke in a car full of people, especially in the winter with the window rolled down freezing everyone in the car. The smokers who protested the ban on smoking in restaurants saying it’s their right to smoke. It’s my right as a non-smoker to not breathe in your toxic smoke. If you choose to smoke, that’s your right to do so. Just don’t expose others to your toxic smoke. That’s why I chose not to smoke. Why should I have to suffer the consequences of smoking when I don’t even smoke? Why should pets or children suffer? Some smokers will actually choose to smoke outside, away from people and pets because they don’t want to expose them to that stuff. I respect those people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/non-smokers-how-rampant-and-how-deep-is-the-smoker-hate/642317.md?page=13)