4 Ways Smoking Damages your Home
Many e-cigarette users and enthusiasts are well aware of the effects traditional cigarettes can have on rooms, buildings and homes
Much of the discussion around traditional cigarettes centers on the dangers they pose to our health. The list of risks smoking poses to your health and the health of those around you is almost endless –
there’s risk to your lungs and heart, and risks to your teeth in terms of staining, as well as your appearance. However, we don’t hear as much about the effects cigarette smoking can have on the inside of your home...
Just like your body and health, long-term cigarette smoking inside your home can cause sometimes irreparable damage. Effects like clinging odor can be unpleasant for non-smoking guests, and damages caused by smoking can reduce the resale value of your home. One of the first things we hear from new e-cigarette users is how their home seems much cleaner and safer too.
It’s conceivable that the smoke from cigarettes can seep into literally every nook and cranny in your home.
Continue reading for 4 of the most common ways cigarette smoke can damage your home, along with how adopting e-cigarettes can help you mitigate them.
- Fire hazard
When left unattended, a burning cigarette can lead to a full-blown fire whose effects can range from smoke damage to a complete loss. These fires can sometimes be fatal for the smoker and other occupants in the house. The U.S. Fire Administration estimates that nearly 1000 smokers and non-smokers are killed each year by fires caused by cigarettes.
Since an e-cigarette is, well electronic, there’s no open flame or hot cherry to set something on fire. Unlike a traditional cigarette, the unit only engages when you put it to your mouth and take a drag.
- Ceilings, walls, furniture and floors
Cigarette smoke contains a variety of chemicals, some of which cling and build up on surfaces that are exposed to it. In your home, cigarette smoke can build up and stain walls and cause wallpaper to curl. Walls too can see nicotine stains build up and discolor them. If the smoking goes on for long enough, the particles can literally embed themselves in sheetrock and be impossible to remove.
If you’ve ever used the smoking huts at Atlanta’s airport, you can’t help but notice how discolored the ceiling tiles and walls are.
But instead of all the tar and chemicals that are given off when you smoke, e-cigarettes only contain 3 substances, each of which dissipate quickly.
Besides clinging to walls, curtains and other household items, cigarette smoke can also cling to electronic components (especially computers) and have disastrous effects over time.
For example, with computers, the smoke will cling to anything that’s emitting heat (i.e. fans, capacitors, processors, etc.). This heat attracts a good bit of “dust” already, but the dust just magnifies when you add cigarette smoke to the mix. Also, cigarette smoke carries moisture with it and can lead to both a corrosion of parts and a dangerous build-up of dust.
Dust and chemicals can even work their way through your walls and coat the inside of your electrical outlets.
E-cigarettes on the other hand don’t contain the substances that can damage electronic items in your home. Also, the “vapor” dissipates so quickly anyway that it probably won’t even reach your item.
- Air conditioning system
Your home’s A/C and heating system is critical to keeping your home comfortable, especially if you live in the Deep South or in a really cold region. The system(s) work by pulling in outside air through a filter. Every so often, these filters require changing.
Smoking in your home adds to all the dust, pet hair and other particulate matter in the air. These particulates have to be caught by the filter. As you can imagine, cigarette smoke will dramatically shorten the time between filter changes. Not changing the filter(s) more frequently while smoking in your home can cause your A/C system to overwork and possibly break down.
Again, e-cigarette vapor doesn’t affect home A/C filters like traditional smoking does. Rather than smoke, you exhale vapor, which dissipates very fast and doesn’t cling to anything.
E-cigarettes, or rather the vapor they give off, simply do not carry these risks. The nicotine-infused liquid that you inhale and exhale only contains a handful of substances, none of which cling to your furniture, walls, electronics and more.
If you live with a non-smoker, we urge you to consider the effects cigarette smoking in the home can have on both their health and comfort.
And remember, e-cigarettes can allow you to get the body your nicotine craves without many of the harmful side effects. One of the biggest are the effects cigarette smoke can have on your surroundings.
To learn more about e-cigarettes (http://www.eversmoke.com/e-cigarettes.html) and to try one out for yourself, we invite you to visit our online store or e-cigarette blog at http://blog.eversmoke.com/ and knowledge center at http://learn.eversmoke.com/ today.