2nd Hand Smoking

Is it possible to get addicted to smoking from second-hand smoking? (When you are around people who smoke).

Growing up, my parents both smoked. In summer, on family-vacation they would both be smoking in the car and refused to roll down the windows becuase the air-conditioning was running. I got plenty of second hand smoke.

I don't think I got addicted to smoking then, but I think it was very easy for me to pick up the habit later in life because of that.

The reason for me posting this is because I am around many people who smoke and when I smell the smoke I have an urge to smoke.

May be just the other effect of second-hand smoking but I'm not sure.

I heard second hand smoking is worse than actually doing it.

Nobody in my family smoked when I was growing up. I wasn't really around "second hand smoke" until a job I had in 1979 when all the managers smoked except me. Meetings were held in a 8x8 office where 3 were smoking and I was the only one that wasn't. One of my co-managers and a good friend smoked cigars and was constantly blowing his cigar smoke in my face on purpose. Still no effect other than to smack him a couple times.

Didn't start smoking until a couple years later, and I know for certain it was a combination of stress and wanting to fit in with the crowd I was hanging out with at the clubs. They all smoked and I didn't. I was newly single and one night I tried a smoke with them and nearly choked to death.

Next day I went to the store, bought a pack of Salems and took my guitar and my fresh pack out to the patio and sat down for 6 hours and strummed away and smoked until I figured out how to do it without gagging every time I inhaled.

Now I seriously wish I could quit, but sadly I enjoy it and am quite addicted to the nicotine.

Yeah. I guess I'm just a bit too worried or something

The weird thing is, I get the urge to smoke when I'm smelling the smoke and hungry. Any other time I don't feel anything.

It may be something related to my Liver Disease (Hepatitis C) I have, but more possibly not.

Thanks... just wondering if there are any long term repercussions for second hand smoking.

For some reason I really want to start it but I'm holding myself.

I actually tried it once and then decided I wouldn't do that ever again.

Check a few results here

Second hand smoke isn't a good thing for anyone, no matter what us smokers say and I completely understand why there is such a push on legislation to ban smoking in public places.

Wow... didn't think the cause of second hand smoking were that dire.

I hope I didn't get anything I'm sure I'm fine. Thanks for that ATNO. I new I had to search, I just wasn't sure of which terms I needed to use.

I actually laugh at myself sometimes. Here I am with an avatar of me sitting in my garden with a bean I just picked in my hand being totally healthy ( other than a few physicals over the years for jobs, I haven't seen a doctor for a health related problem since I broke my hand in 8th grade ) and enjoying the outdoors that I love, and here I am dissing second hand smoke when I myself smoke. Irony at it's best.

I've never heard of anyone getting addicted to smoking from second hand smoke. If it's happening to you then it's possible.

Personally, it gives me a headache.

I wouldn't know, just like ATNO, no one in my family smokes, no one in the whole family, except me, I think I'm like the black sheep, lol. But I can't really tell you because for me I started in grade 11, we were just fooling around having a smoke here and there and then I couldn't really stop ...

Both my parents smoked and my whole childhood, from the first days I remember, was enveloped in a thick cloud of tobacco haze. I hated it, always. As soon as I was big enough to start avoiding smoke-filled rooms I did, and I'm very happy to be living in my own home now, where nobody smokes and no ashtrays are available My parents are very sweet and agree to smoke outside the apartment when they come and visit.

I don't know what damage all that smoke in my childhood did - it can't have been good for me but it didn't affect my lung capacity too adversely (I was always a decent diver) and it certainly didn't make me want to smoke - quite the opposite, I never thought of touching the stuff. But I did go through a transformation - I didn't mind sitting in clouds of smoke as a kid - mostly because I thought there was no alternative, but it makes me feel actively uncomfortable now when I have to put up with smoke blown in my face. (It happens at work sometimes). I'm not one of those snotty people who go around calling cigarettes 'cancer sticks' or asking people to 'please put that thing out', but I do get quietly neurotic when I have to spend too long exposed to the stuff......

On the other hand, I've got to say I feel waves of sympathy for smokers recently, cuz they're being persecuted worse than racists.... It's one thing not to want to be inconvenienced by other people's habits, but it's a different thing entirely to want to forbid people from having habits to begin with.......

All us poor smokers ask for is a little spot outside, maybe under an eve, in case it's raining, where we can light up without cursing everyone else to hell at the same time.

Honestly, I wish someone had forbade me a long time ago. I'd have saved a load of $.

It's possible of course. But it completely depends on you to start smoking or not. It's better to go in for sports then to smoke and kill yourself from inside.

I think it has some impact on those who do not smoke, it also depends on how much they are staying in smoky environments

A while back Skeptic magazine had a few articles on second hand smoke, both sides or the argument had good points.