Second-hand smoke

[Cupcake11]

Neither me, my partner, nor any of my family family but I still find it really hard to avoid it all together.
Last night I went to a pub for a friends birthday where everyone was standing outside. They had a band inside that was playing loud enough to burst your ear drums.
I did my best to stand away from the smokers but people kept coming over to me to congratulate me with cigarettes I their hand - it was really getting on my nerves. I know they probably didn't realise what they were doing but I really worry about breathing any smoke in, even when someone walks past me smoking in the street. Saying that I did get home and wash my hair because I could smell it on me.
Do you think a bit of occasional second hand smoke can do any harm or am I being silly?

I think your over thinking it. Its not a situation you will be in on a regular basis. Nobody can avoid every single risk for the entirety of pregnancy. Though its your choice to go to a pub...

Pubs are places people drink & smoke. So if we go to them we know what to expect. Its people smoking at my dc school I have issue with or my dad trying to light up in my living room when i banned smoking from my house over 12 years ago!

Oh yes, I know everyone was perfectly within their right to be smoking, i was standing outside a pub after all. I just meant it was annoying me when friends were standing on top of me doing it.
We were in a big group and I didn't want to make everyone go inside just because I wanted to (and it was awful inside) but then I got home and started to worry

Oh, and poor you with your Dad!!!

Personally, I would not worry about this even a tiny bit.

Inhaling concentrated smoke directly from a cigarette into one's own lungs is clearly a bad idea. Being in a confined unventilated space with a smoker and inhaling second-hand smoke is probably not quite as bad, but still to be avoided. The situation you describe, while not pleasant, probably carries almost no health risk to the baby.

You were outside so i really wouldn't worry about it. As somethingonce said,if you were at a friends house in a room full of people smoking then yes it may concern me a bit but in the circumstances you've described you would be fine. If you had been in doors im sure your friends wouldn't have lit up in front of you,but being outside in sure they just didn't think about it.

Emily Oster, in her book 'Expecting Better' has a chapter on smoking and second hand smoke. She says an evening spent with smokers isn't going to do any harm - the risks are from continued exposure. So, breathe! You and womb dweller are fine.

Before I read her book I spent an evening very cross because everyone was smoking at a party I was at and I had to sit on the stairs to get away from it all. TBH, I still would not be comfortable around people smoking all evening, but I'm not quite so worried about temporary exposure, though it is maddening when people are thoughtless and wave their cigarettes around.

Thanks for your replies, I feel lots better now. It's so hard to find a balance between carrying on with a normal life and not making a fuss and not doing anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or worried.