Anyway to get cigarette smell out of a stethoscope?

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Specializes in Neuro, Med-surg..

I bought a Littmann Cardio III on eBay, and while the scope works great and everything, evidently the seller was a heavy cigarette smoker. This thing reeks :eek: Seriously, it makes my eyes water being around the scope or the box it came in. I tried rubbing some Armor All on it to clean it up a bit and protect the tubing, but it doesn't mask the stink. Any thoughts short of having it rebuilt by 3M? How about a soaking in Febreeze? :D

Caveat emptor, I suppose.

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Never heard of that one before. I would imagine the Febreeze method would work, as long as a soaking in a liquid wouldn't somehow affect the texture of the lumen.

Trying to think of what else might. I'll get back to you if I think of something better.

You should officially change your name to Stethoscope King, btw. :lol2:

Congrats on your Littman!! :)

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Specializes in Telemetry, M/S.

Try googling Heloise...I know she has some great tips for removing odors from various objects. While I don't think that there were stethoscope specific tips, perhaps you could just adapt some of her suggestions to your situation. Good luck!

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Specializes in Neuro, Med-surg..

"You should officially change your name to Stethoscope King, btw."

...Yeah I've been through a ton of 'em. I'll probably try to put some of the ones I'm not to in love with on eBay and recoup some money!

As for the Littmann, I did a couple of things that really knocked the smell down quite a bit:

1) I made a paste of baking soda and H2O and coated the tubing with it and let it sit for a few hours (baking soda is supposed to be good at odor absorption). I was careful not to get any in the tubing or on the head or binaurals. This really took the edge off the odor.

2) I took some diluted white vinegar and rubbed down the tubing. I then quickly used a water-dampened cloth to wipe the acidic vinegar off.

Both of those took the stink down to 'barely noticeable'! Now I'm not embarrassed to take this scope to the hospital!

BTW- that Littmann Cardio III is a keeper - that sucker is LOUD!

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