# On Asking Smokers Not To **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 25, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709 "2010-05-25T15:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/141 "2010-05-28T20:25:37Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > A smoker’s body, however, is infused with the smell and taste of smoke, and that smell and taste won’t go away unless the smoker hasn’t smoked for at least a couple of weeks. Nonsense. Utter nonsense. Unless you’re engaging in very close carnal relations with every smoker near you, this is not true. In fact, in my experience, not even then. You’re making stuff up. Peoples’ pores do not emit smoke smell. If you can smell smoke smell from peoples’ pores, then please see a doctor; they say the imagined smell of burning rubber is a sign of a tumor - maybe this is a similar thing? No, I don’t smoke. Yes, I know lots of smokers. I have slept with several, and never once have I detected smoke smell emanating form their pores. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/142 "2010-05-28T21:20:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Unless you’re engaging in very close carnal relations with every smoker near you, this is not true. In fact, in my experience, not even then. And in my experience, it IS true. I’ve only engaged in carnal relations with one smoker, but I’ve lived with a few of them. And freshly out of the shower, they usually do smell of smoke. They never triggered any reactions by just smelling of smoke…but they do smell of smoke. You might not smell it, but I usually can. And I can usually tell if someone has just had a cigarette when they walk by. And my sense of smell isn’t even that good! ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/143 "2010-05-28T21:20:56Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 😕 In what way is that blowing up a statement made by someone else? It isn’t. It’s an exaggeration that you made. > [@](#): > > Besides, it wasn’t an exaggeration at all-it was straightforward statement of _fact_. Sure it is. Just like the straightforward claim that the breath of someone who has recently smoked a cigarette can trigger a fit of wheezing from two rooms away, or the claim that cigarette smokers fresh out of the shower are oozing tobacco juice from every pore. Sure. Look, part of politeness is not to pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining. The OP had the grace at least to admit that it wasn’t the smoke that bothered her, but the fact that someone was smoking. Likewise the anecdote about the office workers sending themselves into fits because they thought someone was smoking when they weren’t. Because some of the anti-smoking stuff has little to do with health concerns, either mine or theirs. It is simple busybodying. Some people can’t sleep nights because I don’t particularly give a rat’s ass about their opinions, especially not their hysterical ones. A polite request that I move down wind is one thing. Whipping yourself into a fit of faked coughing at the sight of a cigar - outdoors - or this bullshit about having a fit of the vapors because you can detect tobacco smoke better than the EPA is quite another. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/144 "2010-05-28T21:31:14Z")
If folks have to keep asking you to move downwind from them, the problem, as incredible as it might seem, just _might not_ be on their end. Just sayin’. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/145 "2010-05-28T21:41:43Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If folks have to keep asking you to move downwind from them, the problem, as incredible as it might seem, just _might not_ be on their end. > > Just sayin’. Yeah, because all smokers have eyes in the back of their head and are compelled to stand upwind of everyone else. :rolleyes: Again, if someone walks next to you and is puffing out smoke on you then you are right to not be happy. If the smoker is just standing there and you walk up it is your own problem. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/146 "2010-05-28T21:44:17Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Yeah, because all smokers have eyes in the back of their head and are compelled to stand upwind of everyone else. :rolleyes: > > Again, if someone walks next to you and is puffing out smoke on you then you are right to not be happy. > > If the smoker is just standing there and you walk up it is your own problem. Dancing around the problem continues. Ever wonder why you don’t see many threads concerning “Non-Bather’s Rights”? ---
**Author:** ![JeBradSus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JeBradSus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeBradSus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/147 "2010-05-28T21:44:33Z")
I don’t know if the OP is reading this, but if you are, just be polite, and explain your reasoning in a nice tone. Even if the person disagrees, they’ll probably respond with politeness. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/148 "2010-05-28T21:48:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Dancing around the problem continues. > Ever wonder why you don’t see many threads concerning “Non-Bather’s Rights”? I imagine it’s because no one is attempting to legislate their right to not bathe away. Also, most people aren’t so rude as to pretend to be literally dying from the smell of a hobo. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/149 "2010-05-28T21:54:49Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > I imagine it’s because no one is attempting to legislate their right to not bathe away. Also, most people aren’t so rude as to pretend to be literally dying from the smell of a hobo. It wouldn’t be because no one would bother to politely inquire if the hobo wouldn’t mind not smelling. Look, I sympathize with your addiction, but I still see no reason to be any more polite to you than to that hypothetical bum. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/150 "2010-05-28T21:57:12Z")
And I sympathize with your, ahem, delicacy, but I don’t see any reason to be any more accommodating of you than I would of anyone else who treated me with contempt. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/151 "2010-05-28T22:06:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Dancing around the problem continues. > Ever wonder why you don’t see many threads concerning “Non-Bather’s Rights”? What does bathing have to do with it? Imagine I am standing there having a cigarette in a public area where it is allowed. You come walking up from behind me and stop next to me and ask me to put out the cigarette because it is bothering you. That is reasonable to you? How about _you_ don’t stand next to me or choose to go to the other side of me where you are upwind? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/152 "2010-05-28T22:31:23Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > I have been on the “receiving end” of the equation. Ask me politely, with the same minimum courtesy anyone is entitled to, and I would put out the smoke - unless you tried this in a designated smoking area, and you had plenty of easy options to not be there. Stomp up making icky faces and demands, I’d tell you to go get fucked. Simply put, you get treated as you treat others. Act nice, I treat you nice. Be a jerk, I treat you like one. Flies, honey, vinegar. Icky faces? It may surprise you to learn that cigarette smoke doesn’t smell like roses - I grimace because it _stinks_. And that cough? It’s my body actually physically rejecting the foul air. You know, like when anybody who doesn’t have a cold coughs. Is a man who just caught a faceful of chalk dust being rude? It’s all well and good that you’ve eroded your sensitivity to cigarette smoke, but it _is_ still smoke. I can appreciate that you don’t want to be sworn at for your status as a voluntary walking pollutant, but am I required to suppress my physical reactions in order to aid you in your pretence that you’re not emitting smoke into the air? Talk about feeling entitled… ---
**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:** [May 29, 2010, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/153 "2010-05-29T06:48:55Z")
> [@villa](#): > > Funny how you don’t know me and have no idea how I smoke. But go ahead, make all the judgments that you wish. Except that you posted an example showing how inconsiderate you were: > [@villa](#): > > Well, you’d be wrong there, when the table was one of the limited ones where smoking was specifically permitted by the owners of the business. And when as I said I wated 45 minutes to sit at that table, rather than go to one of the literally hundreds of open seats at specifically non-smoking tables. But knowing that would have required reading what I posted, which was clearly too much effort. Hint: just because the owners allow you to smoke doesn’t magically make it not rude to be smoking indoors where non-smokers are. It’s this sort of casual rudeness that’s led to the smoking bans. ---
**Author:** ![Marmite\_Lover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Marmite\_Lover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marmite_Lover)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/154 "2010-05-29T11:29:55Z")
Do you think that every time a smoker takes a puff and you in turn gave a puff of an air freshener aerosol in his direction he might get the message. Would there be any reaction from the smoker? Which one do you think would move? ---
**Author:** ![DHMO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@DHMO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DHMO)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/155 "2010-05-29T11:50:39Z")
On a related tangent, I take my dogs to an off-leash dog park, where—presumably—all the humans there have a canine companion. People smoke like chimneys, then drop their butts on the ground. Dogs, being dogs, will chew and/or eat them. Tobacco is highly poisonous to dogs (people too…), yet they care nothing about how it affects the animals in the park, their own included! Most dog parks are not _posted_ “No Smoking”, but it would seem only logical to refrain in the few minutes they will be there, excersizing their pooch. ---
**Author:** ![Marmite\_Lover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Marmite\_Lover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marmite_Lover)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/156 "2010-05-29T11:52:50Z")
Do they all if it is a dog park ‘clean up’ after their dogs? ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/157 "2010-05-29T18:51:07Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Imagine I am standing there having a cigarette in a public area where it is allowed. > > You come walking up from behind me and stop next to me and ask me to put out the cigarette because it is bothering you. > > That is reasonable to you? How about _you_ don’t stand next to me or choose to go to the other side of me where you are upwind? This is the situation, right down to the brass tacks. Someone is doing something they are allowed to do in a certain place. Someone else wants them to stop, i.e., wants to curtail something they are doing that is fully within their rights. Reasonable? No. Period. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/158 "2010-05-30T00:57:56Z")
You know, I’ve NEVER walked up to a smoker and asked him/her to put out the fire in a smoking section. I’ve done it in a nonsmoking place, but never where it’s a smoking section. Back before there were smoking sections, I’d sit down in a cafeteria, well away from other people, and have smokers plop down next to me and light up, and I’d point out that I was sitting by my lonesome so that I WASN’T getting a lot of smoke, so would they please either put it out or go elsewhere. I was usually told to move, it was their right to smoke anywhere they wanted to. A couple of them did put it out, though. I nearly fainted each time out of sheer shock. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/159 "2010-05-30T03:10:09Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > And in my experience, it IS true. I’ve only engaged in carnal relations with one smoker, but I’ve lived with a few of them. And freshly out of the shower, they usually do smell of smoke. No they don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709/160 "2010-05-30T03:35:41Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > No they don’t. She is relaying a personal experience. I’ve had the same type of personal experience. I don’t remember you being there when I’ve experienced this-could you please refresh my memory as to where you were standing in the bathroom? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-asking-smokers-not-to/540709.md?page=9)