Second hand smoke - Lung & Respiratory Disorders / COPD Message Board

jacal5 · 05-13-2006, 09:07 AM

My girlfriend is a smoker, but I don't allow her to smoke in my car, and when I go to her apartment she goes in the hallway to smoke. The problem is I can still smell the smoke on her clothes and in her apartment. I was wondering if I am
putting myself in danger of lung cancer by breathing in the smell of the cigarettes, even though there is no combustion of a cigarette burning.

She used to smoke in her apartment, but i refused to go in there while she was smoking, so she stopped, or so she says. I don't know if she really doesn't smoke in there when I am not around, or she just got better at hiding the smell.

A few days ago she was in my car and smelling the cigarettes on her clothes caused me to start sneezing and she asked me if I had allergies! i didn't tell her it was the cigaret smell on her. She is 64 years old and has heart failure, and I can't believe she is still smoking.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

Canyondweller · 05-26-2006, 12:40 AM

Chances are you are not going to get anything from her smoking except smelly clothes and maybe a stuffed up nose but it is hard to be around when you don't smoke. My Dad didn't smoke and my Mom did and they died in their 90's neither from smoking related diseases. If someone that young has heart disease they need to quit cause the next thing to go will be the lungs. Until she decides to you may as well forget trying to convince her. it has to come from within. YOu will have to make a choice as to whether she is worth the aggravation it seems to be causing you which is very legitimate.

shadowcharmed · 05-26-2006, 10:46 AM

Tell her it has nothing to do with allergies and everything to do with her smoking. Bizarrely, some people are more likely to give up smoking as a result of other people's dislike of it (especially the smell) than the effect on their own health!!!