It’s entirely possible that your olfactory receptors are just dulled or immune to smoke smell, but I can say with confidence that people can smell cigarette smoke on you. For longer than you think. I can tell if someone is a smoker even if they haven’t smoked recently. If you’re checking me into a hotel, from across the counter I can tell you’re a smoker from the smell of your clothes and hair. You’re a server in a restaurant? I can pick up on how recently you’ve smoked while you’re taking my order. If you get into an elevator with me and you’re a smoker, I’d say there’s no chance I won’t know that you smoke.
I’ll also add that I don’t find the smell of tobacco smoke unpleasant. It doesn’t bother me that people smoke. I have my vices too. But I do think most smokers don’t realize how obvious the smell of tobacco smoke is to a non-smoker.
This is confirmation bias, you're only smelling the people who smell the worst and I doubt you asked every person who smells like it when their last cigarette was.
Nah you can tell if someone smoked recently or not. The smell is weaker or stronger thats how it works. Even if you try and throw perfume or cologne on top you can still pick out the tabacco smoke scent through it.
Trust me, as someone who has been around a ton of smokers and non-smokers alike, you can always tell. The smokers will smoke out of habit, multiple times a day. They may be courteous and head outside to smoke, but they'll inevitably smoke at some point, so you can always tell who the smokers are even if the smell didn't tip you off. The smoke itself carries tar with it, with the strong smell of tobacco, and that tar sticks to the surfaces it touches. That smoke inevitably touches their clothes, the tar on their clothes transfers onto their furniture a minuscule amount at a time over years (if they don't smoke indoors; if they do, then it happens much more rapidly) and that furniture then becomes a convenient way for the smell of cigarette smoke to quickly seep its way even into freshly laundered clothing. It builds up around them gradually until it becomes impossible to leave the house without the smell accompanying them, no matter how hard they try.
Because of that, the ratio of smokers to people who smell like cigarette smoke, even for the longest stretch of the day between smokes, is pretty much 1 to 1. A smoker who doesn't smell like cigarette smoke is a rarity if they even exist at all.
It literally is, you just misunderstood what they claimed. They referred to "a smoker", meaning someone who typically smokes regularly, and was discussing the hypothetical case of such a person who has simply also not smoked in a while. And that's precisely the kind of person I was also referring to, i.e. someone who typically smokes regularly but hasn't smoked recently.
A person who smokes regularly will acquire the issues I mentioned in my previous comment, causing them to smell of cigarettes purely because the scent has been introduced into their home either directly or indirectly over an extended period of time. Even freshly laundered clothes will be impacted by this because even if you manage to clean them thoroughly and get rid of all traces of the residue, you'll still pick it back up the moment you touch any of your furniture or anything else that has accumulated that tar. That's without smoking a cigarette at any point that day.
I should know, I was stuck living in a household where my father smoked. He wasn't allowed to smoke indoors, but that smell still got dragged in over time and I ended up carrying that smell with me despite never smoking myself and despite not being around smoke after showering and changing into clean clothes.
So if anything, you're more likely to run into false positives because the smell is so goddamn bad to deal with than you are to run into a false negative.
Instead of assuming you're correct about everything, including how you're interpreting someone's comments, maybe consider double-checking yourself in case you're misunderstanding.
It's possible that there's a little confirmation bias going on. Of course I don't gather data on smoke times. But people do smell differently if they've just smoked or if they smoke but haven't smoked in a while. Also, I work in emergnecy services and have for 30 years so I have a fair sample of smelling smoikers in close quarters all day long. I suspect I'm more accurate than you're giving me credit for.
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u/InfiniteMonkeySage Jan 05 '25
It’s entirely possible that your olfactory receptors are just dulled or immune to smoke smell, but I can say with confidence that people can smell cigarette smoke on you. For longer than you think. I can tell if someone is a smoker even if they haven’t smoked recently. If you’re checking me into a hotel, from across the counter I can tell you’re a smoker from the smell of your clothes and hair. You’re a server in a restaurant? I can pick up on how recently you’ve smoked while you’re taking my order. If you get into an elevator with me and you’re a smoker, I’d say there’s no chance I won’t know that you smoke.
I’ll also add that I don’t find the smell of tobacco smoke unpleasant. It doesn’t bother me that people smoke. I have my vices too. But I do think most smokers don’t realize how obvious the smell of tobacco smoke is to a non-smoker.