To think that if you smoke, you should try not to make other people's clothes smell too?

[Leah35]

Shared office of four people, one colleague smokes. She comes back in after lunch and hangs her coat up with everybody else's which leaves the smoke smell on other people's clothing. I understand that the smell is going to be in the room because she comes back in immediately after smoking but hanging her coat up and making everyone else's coats stink is a bit much imo.

Any advice on how to handle this? Colleague is difficult at the best of times (has had to be disciplined a couple of times for standard of work and work ethic) so may not take kindly to anything being said to her about this.

(have nc'd as not sure if colleagues are on here)

It does transfers the smell to clothes and it's annoying to some non smokers. It may not be illegal but it still is bad for health. It must be hard to talk straight to her about it. I guess just hang your clothes somewhere else far from where she hangs hers.

I'm an ex smoker and I never realised how disgusting I smelt! I gave up about 8 months ago and the smell alone will keep me from taking it back up. My brother smokes in his kitchen, stands by the window but I smell it on my hair and my bag when I've left. It's horrible.

It is her right to smoke though and mentioning something may cause tention, it sounds petty to ask some not to hang their coat next to yours as it's making yours smell. Put your coat on the back of your chair?

I'm like a bloodhound when it comes to cigarette smoke.
It irritates me when smokers play down the smell. It's a well known fact that smoking regularly actually dulls your sense of smell... hence why smokers struggle to understand how rank they smell to other people.
It's grim and I wish they'd ban it in any outdoor public place to be honest.

I guess just hang your clothes somewhere else far from where she hangs hers

This seems sensible. However, it's worthwhile remembering that cigarette smoke can be detected from galaxies away for decades. Even when nobody is actually smoking!

Every single MN thread about smoking is batshit. Almost every single one.

Yabu and you need to take hold of a firm grip. Failing that, look for another job.

@RubMyRhubarb - how long does this take to accomplish? For how long need one garment be in close proximity to another to not only transfer the smell but do so to such an extent that it's readily noticeable?

For me, not very long. My ds, when in the class with the tutor, was not rubbing up against the tutor. The tutor was at the front of a small classroom. The class was 1.5 hours. I noticed the smell immediately he got into the car and I didn't know the tutor smoked.

My other ds got a lift home from school recently. Maximum 10 minutes. The driver did not smoke while the kids were in the car, but again, without knowing she smoked, I could smell smoke off his school bag as soon as I stepped into the hall in our house. I could also smell it off him when I went into the kitchen.

I do accept that not everyone has the same sense of smell so it will be stronger to some some than others.

@theymademejoin

Hang on, I'm not completely clear on this so bare with me...

Are you claiming that no contact need be made at all and that the smoke from someone's clothes, who has been smoking earlier and is not currently smoking is transferred literally across a room and absorbed by a non smokers clothes? Or am I misunderstanding?

@RubMyRhubarb - no you are not misunderstanding. My ds came out of the class smelling of smoke without having touched the tutor. The tutor was quite close to him as it was a small room.

My other ds presumably had the smell transferred to him from the soft materials in the car. I don't know whether the driver smokes in the car or not but she definitely was not smoking while my ds was on the car.

My dad smokes. If I’m at their house, I will double bag (carrier, in carrier in overnight bag) clothes and keep them in a room he doesn’t smoke in. Sometimes I may not take these clothes from my bag and the bag will not leave room with door shut. When I get home, they will still reek of smoke. When my dad comes to mine, he smokes outside, again you can smell smoke Long after he’s gone.

It’s vile. I don’t think I’m more attuned to it, but not sure if some smokers absorb a fug if it more?

I would never hang my dad’s coat by anyone else’s in our house. Ideally I’d leave it outside but he (unsurprisingly ;) ) wouldn’t be happy with that!

@theymademejoin

Genuinely, and I do mean it - no disrespect intended but it seems far more likely that your DS is actually smoking. Or at the very, very least is hanging around with people who are smoking. I mean actually smoking, as in standing close to them when they're smoking. I hope you don't take offense because none is intended but your claim is ridiculous in the extreme.

Now we've gone from one item of clothing imparting such a pungent funk just by touching it to no contact necessary at all and being in the same room as someone who was smoking earlier but is not actually smoking in your presence making your clothes stink. I agree with Vlad up there - utter batshit.

I've every sympathy with smokers who're unable to give up -- as it can be an extremely difficult thing to do.

It's very difficult sometimes for smokers to really appreciate just how revolting the smell and residue of cigarette smoke is -- to non smokers, in particular. And yes the odour does transfer from clothing.

After smoking heavily for almost 20 years, [I stopped about 18 years ago] I've became that sensitive to cigarette smoke. That now, friends of mine that smoke don't believe me when I tell them that I can, when driving, smell the cigarette smoke of someone in the car in front of me. Even with theirs and my windows closed. Indeed I went to the hairdressers the other day and could smell cigarettes on the hairdressers hands. Now I don't think I'll return there as it made the experience a little unpleasant.

A lady across the road from me has just evicted a couple of young students who were renting rooms off of her, because they were smokers [never in the house], but she told me she can smell it on them when they came in. She said her house smells of stale tobacco and it made her feel ill. Whilst I sympathise with the evicted students, I can also see her point

Buster

I can believe what you're saying because you're talking about a household that is actually being smoked in, closing doors doesn't make much difference and I can even believe the double bagging and still smelling of smoke. But again, that's because actual smoking is going on inside the house and the smoke will get around. Others are talking about people who have been smoking at some point earlier and this somehow being imparted to various things including coats, cars and children. All while no smoking is actually taking place.

Smoke being transferred without touching! Brilliant.

My mum used to say I stank of smoke when I came in from school and that was because my friends smoked.

And she is a smoker and could smell it the minute I walked in the door. I'm a smoker now too.

And I'm off for a fag.

So is every single person who works in my office an inadequate sniffer, or have I got magical skin/hair that discards the smell of smoke like water off a ducks back??

@RubMyRhubarb - believe what you want.

Both of my ds's are very strongly involved in sport, as are most of their friends. They are very health conscious and there is very little likelihood of either of them ever smoking. If they were smoking then surely I would have smelt it off ds1 at times other than when he came out from the tutor and on ds2 at times other than the one time he got a lift from a (presumably) heavy smoker? I'm not at all offended at your suggestion that they are smoking. I just think your suggestion shows an inability to think outside your own experience.

I expect your inability to accept my "claim", as you call it, is due to your sense of smell being hugely diminished by your smoking, as well as a lack of imagination that would allow you to recognise that people have differing levels of sensitivity in their senses.

And I'm off for a fag

I'll join you, your disgusting carcinogenic hell-hole or mine?!

Thyme - it's your coat that's magical!

@ThymeLord - So is every single person who works in my office an inadequate sniffer, or have I got magical skin/hair that discards the smell of smoke like water off a ducks back??

No idea. All I know is I can smell what I can smell.

Perhaps it's to do with frequency of smoking or where you smoke or how often you wash or change your clothes.

@theymademejoin

It has nothing to do with my sense of smell - that's completely irrelevant. I'm not disputing that you could smell smoke on your kids, I'm disputing the method by which you claim they acquired it!

And don't be fooled, I was once a paragon of health, heavily involved in sports and I started smoking and all that went out the window. I know you won't want to think of your kids as being smokers, could be like I said and they have friends who smoke - that explanation is more than sufficient and far, far, far more likely than yours.

it's your coat that's magical!

Bloody Asda. They're brilliant aren't they. Magical warm coats for under £30!

Most people are unaware of the smells they give off - smokers and non smokers alike.
Over the years i have had to work with people giving off these various odours: wet dog, stale curry, garlic, halitosis, BO, cheesy feet, rotting shoes, poo, urine, vomit, unwashed scalp, menstrual blood, semen.

I'm a smoker and it's true - i rarely smell smoke on others or myself.

Theymademejoin your son 100% smokes, sorry.

Can you not just keep your coat somewhere else?

Over the years i have had to work with people giving off these various odours: wet dog, stale curry, garlic, halitosis, BO, cheesy feet, rotting shoes, poo, urine, vomit, unwashed scalp, menstrual blood, semen

Fuck me! Where do you work?!

How can you not believe someone who says they can smell smoke?

Why would they lie about that?

@rhubarb welcome to join me here but it's cold out on the balcony.