This is not an anti-smoking post ... rather an interesting ... errr, actually, GROSS observation.
I bought my first house in 1980 ... it was built in 1975, so it was "relatively" new at the time. I remember when the realtor showed us the house, all the windows were open (the house had no a/c, which is VERY common in L.A.) and there were air fresheners throughout, as well as one of those heated potpourri pots in the kitchen (smelled like apple pie I think). I didn't think much of it ... air fresheners or potpourri are pretty common items in houses listed for sale.
Once we moved in, we noticed the smell .... cigarrettes. We couldn't get away from it. One day the (ex)wife was cleaning the bathroom and when she sprayed Windex on the mirror over the sink, she missed and it hit the wall. Immediately, thick, brownish-orange crud started running down the wall! We thought the whole interior of the house was painted an "off-white" or beige color ... it was actually white. What was running down the wall was the crap left behind from cigarette smoke! We took some Formula 409 and sprayed test areas throughout the house and the whole place was like that ... COVERED in this thick, brownish-orange "gunk". I'd seen this before in the car business. I remember our clean-up crew would run into this same problem when refurbishing a smoker's trade-in to prepare it for resale, but this was my first experience with a whole house! We ended up scrubbing the complete house down. No matter what "miracle cleaner" we tried or how many air fresheners we used ... the smell never went away and we eventually had to replace all the carpeting and drapes. What I always wondered about was the fact the people who owned the house before we bought it, had three young kids!
When I had my pressure washing business, I had a couple customers (husband and wife) who were heavy chain smokers. They had a trailer with a big screened-in porch across the front of the house and would spend their days doing NOTHING but sitting on that porch smoking. I grew to know them well over the years and saw them often (I passed their house almost daily) ... I NEVER ... ONCE ... passed that house when they were NOT sitting on that porch smoking. They had me clean the porch every 6 months and as long as I live, I will never forget the sight of that brownish-orange crud rolling off the ceiling and walls as I'd clean.
Well this weekend I attended an estate sale. The house was completely opened up with fans everywhere and I noticed a big box in the garage full of trash ... mostly empty Fabreeze bottles. The whole interior of the house was kind of a tan color ... EXCEPT where the pictures "used" to hang on the walls (they'd been removed to sell). Every wall in the house was covered with big, bright, WHITE rectangles and squares (where the pictures had been)! EVERYTHING smelled of cigarettes. I purchased 3 small items ... all were made of metal ... and Lynn purchased a "Joy of Cooking" cookbook. All the way home, all we could smell was that stale cigarette smell. We kept sniffing our clothes and they seemed to be SATURATED with the odor. As soon as we got home, Lynn started doing laundry! BUT ... the smell seemed to linger in the house and we did a bit of spraying to "cover it up". This morning as Lynn was getting ready for work, I went downstairs and it hit me like a ton of bricks! It was like hitting an invisable "wall" as I walked into the kitchen. That SMELL! Damn ... it was coming from that cookbook lying on the kitchen table! The book took a quick trip directly to the garage where it may be awaiting a trip into the trash .. not sure yet what to do with it. I guess while we were driving home Saturday, we assumed the smell was just coming from our clothes, but it was also coming from that book lying on the backseat!
I have to tell you, my sense of smell is not very acute. I think all the chemicals I used in the cleaning business kind of killed my "odor sensors", so when I say something smells ... it REALLY smells!
This isn't a cigarette or smoker bashing post per se ... it's just that the house we visited this weekend brought back memories of similar instances I've experienced in my lifetime and with the book experience first thing this morning, it's fresh on my mind. What I can't help but wonder is ... after my personal cleaning experiences and watching that "thick, brownish-orange scum" roll down the walls ... how much of that crap ends up in these people's lungs! I mean ... what I see is the "left-over" stuff. It kind of boggles the mind when you see it "piled up" and visable.
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