odor of cigarette

Someone asked me that question and I just don't know if it is possible. Is it a pathology or ....?

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I have a problem and would appreciate it if anyone can offer some

help or advice.Recently I have begun to smell the odor of cigarette

smoke almost all the time. Of course no one in my house smokes and

none who visit us do either. We do live in an apartment building, but

the neighbors over us don't smoke nor do the ones who live beside us.

I am at my wits end. I was hoping if anyone is a nurse or any part of

the medical profession they might know what could be happening.

[ageless]

olfactory hallucination?

[Cubby]

Do you have teens living at home? Hate to be suspicious, but.....

[shay]

Someone in or around your apt. is smoking, and it's either traveling up/down the ventilation shaft or (believe it or not, it's happened to me) UP THE PIPES IN THE SINK. Especially if it's someone below you who smokes in the bathroom.

Either that, or yeah, one of your kids may be smoking.

[catlady, BSN, RN]

I don't know. For the past couple of years, I've gone through periods where I've been *sure* I could smell smoke in my house, even though no one smokes and I've owned the house for years. It gets so bad at times I start spraying perfume all over my bedroom because the smell is bothering me so much! I figured I'm going crazy....

[shay]

Okay, catlady & nursy ann....

Both your houses are haunted by a ghost that smokes!!!!!!

[CountrifiedRN]

Maybe the tenants in the apartment before this person lived there smoked. I imagine the smell could stay in the carpet.

My friends mom and dad were heavy smokers. I offered to help when they moved from the apartment they had lived in for 8 years. There was so much nicotine residue on the walls, when we took pictures down I saw that the wall underneath the picture was actually white. And I had thought the color of the walls was like a butter cream. I'm sure their apartment was hard to get the smell out of.

[SKM-NURSIEPOOH, BSN, RN]

late one night, i'd thought i too smelled the odor of cigarette smoke in the house. everyone was asleep except for my father who was watching tv downstairs in the kitchen. i thought that he had been sneaking smoking again & i blasted him. he protested that he was innocent but i gave him the "yea right" look. as i was talking to him, the odor got stronger & stronger. i went into the downstairs bathroom, which has an exhaust fan, & boy was the smell thick. there was no smoke that i could see, but that heavy cigarette smell. something occurred to me...i opened-up the front door...lord & behold...a skunk had been spraying...it's mating season & the male skunks spray in order to - yuk - attract the females. maybe you too have skunks spraying around your property doing this mating season. if so, it'll soon pass...lol :chuckle

[aimeee, BSN, RN]

My worry would be that it is not cigarette smoke, but electrical smoke from a hot wire somewhere within.

[Sleepyeyes]

I'd bet you're not crazy. My hubby doesn't smoke in the house and for days I was bugged by an odor of smoke in the house. Turns out hubby was smoking as usual in the screen porch and the fickle breeze was carrying it into the house through the a/c.

And it DID drive me nuts til I figured it out, because OF COURSE I was the only one who smelled it.

Anyhow-- I can smell the difference between cig smoke, wood smoke (or brush fire), and house fire (plastic-y with wood smoke), and electrical (extremely plastic-y), and even if my car's engine is too hot and therefore low on oil.

But now I have a question: someone told me once that the nose "turns off" when we're asleep. This supposedly was from a fire prevention person, and that was supposedly the reason why people sleep through fires.

I've never heard of such a thing; has anyone else?? Mario?? any takers??

[thisnurse]

its a conspiracy by the tobacco companies.

[Reabock]

SLEEPYEYES: I too, have an acute sense of smell. I can tell if the woodstove is burning too hot (into the red zone on the chimney themometer) I could smell the new muffler burn off smell on my car for months after others said they could not. I don't know about the sense of smell "turning off" when you sleep. I have awakened many times knowing I'd better go down and check the fire, and also can smell bed breath and BO at 20 paces :eek: not a good thing when you're working this closely with folks:D