Aside from the obvious and well documented harm that smoking brings to a smoker's health, one of the biggest drawbacks to smoking is the smell it creates, and consequently leaves behind. It's easy for a non-smoker to sniff out the smoker in the room, and if you're looking to make an impression then stinking of cigarette smoke is an immediate concern for an ardent cigarette fan. What can make the smell even worse however, is when it rains. But why does smoke smell so bad on wet clothes?
Updated: 18th March 2020
WHAT THAT SMOKE SMELL IS
Many people find it confusing that the smell of cigarette smoke clings to everything around it, lingering long after that cigarette butt has long been extinguished.
When it comes to nice smelling scents, such as bread, perfume and flowers, we find that their scent quickly peters out, replaced by scents not half as attractive to our noses.
What we tend to forget is that that the smell of smoke is exactly that: smoke. As they say, where there's smoke, there's fire, which means combustion. The stink from cigarettes that pervades our outfits and homes is burnt particles, consisting of ash, partially burned tobacco, plant matter and more. Because the smoke smell is made of particulates it clings to surfaces and fibres, meaning smokers find it particularly difficult to hide the fact that they've been smoking and desperately want to discover how to remove the smell of smoke.
SMOKE SMELL AND WET CLOTHES
Many smokers have found themselves standing out in the cold as the rain thunders down unmercifully, resulting in one very sodden smoker with a slightly bigger problem on their hands: the rather unpleasant and heavy whiff of cigs now sitting in their clothes and almost impossible to get rid of.
As with any hard particles that are combined with moisture, the mixing of the smoke particulates with water makes an impossibly strong smelling combination. The particles released from the burning of the cigarette settle on nearby clothes and the surroundings. In addition, much of what is burnt within a cigarette is tar, meaning that this becomes a sticky substance which cools on surfaces, making walls yellow.
Vaping has no smoke smell
The nicotine found in e-cigarettes does not come from tobacco, as the contents of an e-cigarette are a combination of nicotine, flavourings and diluents. Meaning there are no combustible particles released from vaping. Vaping heavily can make its mark on a room eventually, but after a few weeks this mark will have broken back down to air and water, leaving no damage.
The major benefit of vaping is that there is no panic about how to get rid of the smell of smoke in your home or how to get the smell of smoke out of clothes. Smells left behind after vaping will be similar to whatever flavour vape you have in your e-cigarette and will dissipate quickly.
If you find yourself worrying about how to get rid of smoke smells and if your cigarette smell is making you into an outcast, then perhaps it's time to ditch the cigs for a better smelling you.