Good for your boyfriend (and for the baby, and for you) that he quit!

I've actually only heard it a few times. I assume those allergic wouldn't be smoking though.

There is also quite a bit of money spent by the government on all those people who are now in their golden years, on medicaid, and slowly suffocating to death from COPD. When I was a clerk, I had an elderly customer who would walk in with his oxygen tank, rant about how the government taxed us to death (as best he could in between gurgling coughs) and then ask for two packs of Virginia slims. I found this ironic.

The drug cartel business makes a lot of money also. So does McDonalds, and other fast food joints and the Alcohol business. Just because the Government doesn't stop it, doesn't mean it is the best thing to use.

I have never heard "everyone" who is a non-smoker claiming to be allergic; in fact, until this thread, I had thought I was alone. And yes, I have a legitimate allergy, and a severe one at that - my tongue and throat swell, I lose my voice within seconds, I get nausea, the asthma kicks in, etc. and if it isn't treated quickly and aggressively, it's EpiPen and ambulance. The thing with smoking is that a smoker forces anyone close enough to partake in their chosen poison, and that is really wrong. I couldn't care less if someone wants to smoke, but once it starts affecting other people, it becomes everyone's business. So what if cigarettes generate tax dollars? It doesn't make it right or good. And so tobacco *should* be taxed - with the amount the government forks out to cover the medical expenses of treating smoking-related illnesses, they should really be taxed even further. Smoking is a choice, and these people choose to engage in a habit that almost ensures they will experience some illness or another as a result of that habit. Meanwhile, smokers take up hospital beds that could be given to someone who is sick through no fault of their own. Do I hate smokers as individuals? Of course not. But I will never understand why they choose to take up a habit that they know will make them sick to a greater or lesser degree, and that also affects others around them, whether through forcing them to smoke passively (particularly in the case of children), or through having their loved ones have to watch them waste away from cancer or otherwise suffer some horrible condition that was totally unnecessary. No matter how I look at it, I simply cannot make sense of it.

But I've never heard anyone say they are allergic to McDonalds or cocaine. Your argument holds no weight.

Ad Hominem attacks won't get you nowhere.

However alertly you may scan for cigarettes, you don't always know someone's smoking until you catch a whiff of the smoke, and for a lot of people one whiff can be enough to trigger reactions.

I am. Cigarette smoke lingers also. I cough when my coworker comes in after having a cigarette because of the smell still on him aggravating my allergies.

This is really bothering me. You can't be allergic to smoke. It's not an allergen. You're just sensitive to it, all people are. The only difference is smokers become less sensitive as they smoke more and more.

An intolerance to something still causes an uncontrollable physical reaction, even if it's not an allergic one. I have pretty severe asthma, and if I, for example, borrow my smoker brother's jacket to let the dog outside, I'll have an asthma attack. There's no way around it. Same thing with being in the car with a smoker, or trapped in a bus shelter, or whatever. It's their right to smoke - that's their choice. But they do not have the right to endanger my health because of it and make me sick. There's a thing called common courtesy - I'd happily hold the spot of a smoker in line for the bus for them to step downwind and light up. Usually, when I ask someone to do that, politely, they have no problem. I have had a few dickheads tell me that it I didn't like it, I could move. Which just made me want to slap them with my crutches.

I'm allergic. My tongue and throat swell, I lose my voice almost immediately, I get nausea and the asthma kicks in. I have to treat it with antishitamines and Prednisolone, among other things, some of which have nasty side effects. Someone who isn't smoking but has recently smoked is enough to cause this reaction. This is NOT "irritation" - this is bona fide ALLERGY. No other type of smoke does this to me. It is specific to tobacco smoke. When cigarettes and the like are burnt, they release chemicals into the air and that is what causes the reaction. You clearly don't understand how allergic reactions work, otherwise you would know that a person can be allergic to pretty much anything. There is no set list of allergens. Whether you like it or not, allergy to tobacco smoke is quite real.

Incidentally, the fact that the residue of the chemicals on someone's clothing is enough to trigger a reaction, in the absence of smoke, proves it's not "irritation" caused by smoke itself. The fact that my symptoms respond to medication for allergic reaction also proves it's allergy.

Your neighbor is smoking in his home, and to fight that, you light scented smoke? Okay, because that makes sense.

#88, I think it was the smoking neighbor who lit the incense, not #54.