The stench of smoke haunts me

After leaving work around 10 p.m., I stop off at a bar on my way home to grab a drink with a… After leaving work around 10 p.m., I stop off at a bar on my way home to grab a drink with a couple of friends I haven’t seen in a month or so. We chat, nursing our beers, and then call it a night about an hour later. All is well in this scenario — until I return to my apartment.

The second I step inside my apartment after being out at a bar or party, even for the shortest amount of time, I’m immediately struck with self-loathing. It’s the stench. My hair, my jacket, my jeans, everything all the way down to my bra (oh yes, it’s that penetrating) reeks of cigarette smoke.

This disgusting, lingering effect of trying to chat with some friends over a drink is just one of the many reasons I wish our state would get with the program and ban smoking in bars. Other cities, New York City most notable among them, have passed laws banning smoking in bars and restaurants because of health concerns for non-smokers. If I were a resident of New York, I would give my lawmakers a big old “thank you!”

Why? Well, of course, I’m a nonsmoker. And the effects of hanging out in a smoke-filled public environment repeatedly leave me feeling sick.

First of all, let’s get back to the story that started us off. Smoking really, literally, stinks. And not just a little, either. I used to hang my clothes over the banister in our upstairs hallway after a night out, but the smell usually lingers for a few days, regardless of trying to “air out” the clothes. I had to move them because I was grossing out my roommates, as the smell overpowered the entire hall — coming up the stairs, one would be immediately struck with the urge to hold her breath and race to her room.

So I drape the multiple articles of winter clothing around my room now, douse them with perfume, and hope the smell abates in a day so I can put the clothes in my laundry bag without creating a hamper of stench.

Then, of course, there’s the hair and skin factor — if you don’t take a shower after you get in from such an excursion, not only will the odor linger on you until you do, but if you decide to go to bed before you shower, your pillow, sheets and whatever pajamas you wear will reek of smoke as well.

But more than the fact that smoke-filled bars leave you with a clinging, persistent stench is that smoking irritates your body, as well. Contact lens wearers know that sitting in a smoky environment for any length of time causes your precious contacts to dry out. Your vision is blurred, and your eyes itch and hurt. This goes for non-contact wearers as well. It agitates your eyes and, at least for me, means that I’m stuck with my glasses the next day because my eyes are still red and dry when I wake up.

Finally, though, is the all-important health concern. Second-hand smoke is harmful. It is proven to cause ill health effects, including cancer.

When we see a parent smoking in a vehicle or an enclosed room with a child around, we gasp and reproach that parent for exposing the child to such harmful chemicals. So why don’t we feel the same way about adults? Sure, maybe the kid can’t help that he’s there and smoke may cause more harmful effects in a developing body than an adult one, but non-smokers don’t have many, if any, non-smoking bar options, and carcinogens are carcinogens, no matter what your age.

Everyone knows someone who smokes. And while I’d like for my smoker friends to quit so that they decrease their chances of developing smoking-related health consequences, banning smoking in bars is not about telling people that they have to quit. It is about creating an environment that is comfortable and safe for people who do not smoke. So while I’d feel bad asking my pals to step outside or go into a designated smoking room to enjoy a cigarette, I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

These are, after all, public spaces. They’re supposed to be for everyone. And while people have the right to smoke if they want to, it should also be my right to not be exposed to harmful and irritating chemicals if I want to be social in a public atmosphere.

Non-smokers shouldn’t have to host gatherings in their homes, prepare themselves to smell and feel like a chimney or inhale harmful fumes that they make a conscious choice not to inhale first-hand just so they can have a couple beers in a social environment. That is a worse injustice than asking smokers, people who know they are participating in an activity that is harmful to themselves and those around them, to kindly step outside or into a designated smoking area.

If you know any successful techniques for getting the smell of cigarette smoke out of a thick winter jacket so Erin doesn’t have to wash or douse hers in perfume every weekend, e-mail it to her at enl1@pitt.edu.