How to Live With a Smoker

Living with a smoker can be a challenge if you aren't one yourself. Smoker's spouses and children live with an increased risk of lung and other types of cancers, as well as dangers of birth defects. Getting your loved one to quit smoking is the best way to eliminate these risks, but if that hasn't worked, try a few methods to make life with a smoker more bearable.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Ask the smoker in your house to dump ashtrays after each use. Having clean ashtrays helps get rid of some of the odor from smoking.
2. Set up a small smoking area outside your house. In colder climates, designate one room as the only room where smoking is allowed.
3. Clean your carpets and furniture often to eliminate smoke buildup in fabrics.
4. Wash down walls and floors periodically. Over time, smoke can build up on walls and floors and washing them down is the only way to get rid of the residue.
5. Don't allow any smoking around your children. According to researchers, youngsters exposed to secondhand smoke for several hours a day are 3 times more likely to develop cancer as adults than children brought up in a smoke-free household.
6. Ban smoking in your house entirely if you are pregnant. Studies show an increased risk of birth defects in infants of mothers who smoke or have prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke.
7. Use an air purification system. Although these can't get rid of all the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, they are able to get some of the harmful toxins out of the air.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't allow others to smoke in your house or around your partner who is a smoker. Smoking isn't nearly as appealing when you have to do it alone at the back of the yard.
• Get help for your loved one who is a smoker. Share information with them about the harm it is doing to you and your children and get information to help them quit.