Nasty!

[Chocolate Cake]

About the nastiest thing I encounter on a regular basis is being trapped in an elevator with someone who is just coming in from smoking. Nasty!

To the smokers out there, can you please air out a bit before you get on the elevator?

Can you wear a mask? Smokers do smell badly, but they have a right to be in elevators.

I know we had an issue years ago when my one child was in elementary school. His coat would smell so badly because he shared a hook with a child whose parents smoked. Eventually, the teacher came up with a system that put all of the smokers coats in one area, and non-smokers in another. I can't imagine choosing your addiction over your child. You are making your child smell! Isn't that a wake up call?

With that being said, an elevator ride isn't very long. Just wear a mask.

ETA-I thought you had an allergy to smoke. That is why I suggested mask. I just read the OP again. You just find it smelly? Yes. So do most people. Hold your breath. You will be fine.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

Oh please, guy in my office craps his pants every few months. You don't have a clue about nasty.

OMG. LOL!

 

[L&Lfan]

There are many things that people in public places do that I wish they wouldn't but it's a free society and we need to learn to deal or live in the woods with the animals. I mean, is there anything more foul that breathing in car exhaust?

How about breathing in body odor? Has deodorant become passé?

 

[drew64]

About the nastiest thing I encounter on a regular basis is being trapped in an elevator with someone who is just coming in from smoking. Nasty!

To the smokers out there, can you please air out a bit before you get on the elevator?

Walk!

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

 

[leebee]

I agree, smokers smell nasty. I think it's too bad that those of us who don't indulge in this unhealthy habit have to suffer the smells and consequences of someone else's bad habit, but we all have to live together, and for as long as smoking is a legal habit, we are going to have to put up with the smell. I am highly allergic to smoke, so this is a real problem for me. I teach one-on-one and many of my students come from homes with parents who smoke. The kids smell, their jackets smell, their book bags and books smell. It triggers my allergies and makes me sick. Nothing can be done about this, though. Hardly seems fair to me for me to be sick because of someone else's bad habits (but that's not a very popular opinion these days), but it's the way it is.

 

[aprilgail]

Can you wear a mask? Smokers do smell badly, but they have a right to be in elevators.

I know we had an issue years ago when my one child was in elementary school. His coat would smell so badly because he shared a hook with a child whose parents smoked. Eventually, the teacher came up with a system that put all of the smokers coats in one area, and non-smokers in another. I can't imagine choosing your addiction over your child. You are making your child smell! Isn't that a wake up call?

.

I remember going on a field trip with my daughters class in grade school and one little boy just reeked of cigarette smoke, he took his coat off but he still stunk- it is really disgusting exposing your child to that!

 

[Oreo Cookie]

About the nastiest thing I encounter on a regular basis is being trapped in an elevator with someone who is just coming in from smoking. Nasty!

To the smokers out there, can you please air out a bit before you get on the elevator?

If this is the nastiest thing you encounter on a regular basis consider yourself very, very lucky. Maybe learn to let the small things not affect you so much.

I agree with other posters, there are so many smells that are annoying to me, but that's my issue. For the most part it's a small period of time being around the smell.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

About the nastiest thing I encounter on a regular basis is being trapped in an elevator with someone who is just coming in from smoking. Nasty!

To the smokers out there, can you please air out a bit before you get on the elevator?

Oh and while you're at it can you use some mouthwash, DO and refrain from farting. Thanks.

 

[piccolopat]

I wish that was the nastiest that I've seen. The elevator at my train station has been used as a toilet in the past. I hate smoke but that's nothing compared to what heat and enclosed spaces can do when someone is a real idiot.

 

[mom2rtk]

Can you wear a mask? Smokers do smell badly, but they have a right to be in elevators.

I know we had an issue years ago when my one child was in elementary school. His coat would smell so badly because he shared a hook with a child whose parents smoked. Eventually, the teacher came up with a system that put all of the smokers coats in one area, and non-smokers in another. I can't imagine choosing your addiction over your child. You are making your child smell! Isn't that a wake up call?

With that being said, an elevator ride isn't very long. Just wear a mask.

ETA-I thought you had an allergy to smoke. That is why I suggested mask. I just read the OP again. You just find it smelly? Yes. So do most people. Hold your breath. You will be fine.

OMG, my son had one friend in grade school who smelled so bad we had to drive with the windows down when he was in the car. If my son spent the night, we had to take him straight home for a hose down after we picked him up! Nicer kid and nicer parents you will never meet. But MAN. The stench.......

 

[DizBelle]

I wish that was the nastiest that I've seen. The elevator at my train station has been used as a toilet in the past. I hate smoke but that's nothing compared to what heat and enclosed spaces can do when someone is a real idiot.

That's why I put in the "on a regular basis". I'm sure there are nastier things out there but hopefully only encountered much more seldomly.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

Nicer kid an nicer parents you will never meet. But MAN. The stench.......

That's the thing. There are great people out there that just happen to be smokers. Awesome people.

But they have no idea that they smell. They think mouthwash, or sprays, or a quick change of clothes will help.

It doesn't.

If you smoke, you smell. Your children smell. Your coat smells. Your Tupperware smells at bake sales. The bags you deliver the crafts in for Fun Day smell. An overpowering, gross, stale smell that won't leave and fills up a room.

You are a good person, but you smell and you leave your odor wherever you or your children go.

Are there worse things? Of course. But smokers stink. Period.

Having my children walking around with a foul odor would be enough to make me quit.

 

[aprilchem]

I'm a professor, and many of my colleagues will not accept papers that smell of smoke - they will discard them and have the students re-submit or just not give them credit for the work. It is in fact a health hazard - third hand smoke (exposure to nicotine by touching something that has been in contact with smoke or a smoker's hands that are contaminated) has been shown to lead to increased blood levels of cotinine, the blood indicator of nicotine. Same with smell - if you can smell the smoke on a person (even if you can't physically see it) you are being exposed to nicotine the same as when you breathe in second-hand smoke, only at a bit lower levels. So for that reason I'd set it apart from somebody who smells bad from not bathing or intestinal gas - those won't harm me, but smoke will.

 

[Chocolate Cake]

I'm a professor, and many of my colleagues will not accept papers that smell of smoke - they will discard them and have the students re-submit or just not give them credit for the work. It is in fact a health hazard - third hand smoke (exposure to nicotine by touching something that has been in contact with smoke or a smoker's hands that are contaminated) has been shown to lead to increased blood levels of cotinine, the blood indicator of nicotine. Same with smell - if you can smell the smoke on a person (even if you can't physically see it) you are being exposed to nicotine the same as when you breathe in second-hand smoke, only at a bit lower levels. So for that reason I'd set it apart from somebody who smells bad from not bathing or intestinal gas - those won't harm me, but smoke will.

Oh wow. Very interesting. That was my new knowledge for the day. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Hikergirl]

The nastiest thing I encounter on a regular basis is all the cigarette butts along the local roads. I don't understand why smokers think its okay to just toss them out the window. Its garbage and its nasty. I bet these people aren't throwing dirty diapers or bags of trash out of their car windows, so why do they throw their butts out of it?
If you want to stink that is one thing, but really do you have to trash the roads too?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm a professor, and many of my colleagues will not accept papers that smell of smoke - they will discard them and have the students re-submit or just not give them credit for the work. It is in fact a health hazard - third hand smoke (exposure to nicotine by touching something that has been in contact with smoke or a smoker's hands that are contaminated) has been shown to lead to increased blood levels of cotinine, the blood indicator of nicotine. Same with smell - if you can smell the smoke on a person (even if you can't physically see it) you are being exposed to nicotine the same as when you breathe in second-hand smoke, only at a bit lower levels. So for that reason I'd set it apart from somebody who smells bad from not bathing or intestinal gas - those won't harm me, but smoke will.

Glad someone finally brought this up.

From the American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www2.aap.org/richmondcenter/pdfs/ThirdhandHandout.pdf

Diz Belle, here is some validation for you:

 

[SMD]

I'm a professor, and many of my colleagues will not accept papers that smell of smoke - they will discard them and have the students re-submit or just not give them credit for the work.

This is a tangent, but once in college I pre-ordered my books and requested used. I got one that smelled so bad I couldn't stand to read it. I had to sell it back and buy the book again. The next semester I was in the bookstore smelling all of the used books. I got plenty of looks, but I didn't care, because it was worth it.

 

[pocomom]

After I had a spinal fusion I was told to avoid all second hand smoke including walking past smokers, going to a restaurant that had a smoking section even if I sat in non-smoking, any exposure. They said exposure to second hand smoke was the number one reason the fusions fail (by the bone not growing) and if I could smell smoke I was getting enough exposure to cause a problem.
Now I just find it unpleasant, but clearly it is more than just something that smells bad- you are getting chemical exposures.