Just saw where NYC raised the legal age to purchase cigarettes to 21..are there many cig smokers in Seattle? (stats)

[mamainfl]

I am always surprised at the number of smokers there are in our area. Especially younger smokers. Does this seem to be prevalent in Seattle too? I thought with Seattle being an outdoorsy, active area perhaps the smoking population would be small.

[strad]

I don't know the stats for Seattle specifically, but Washington state generally ranks in the bottom 3-4 for number of smokers, only Utah and California consistently rank lower, so compared to the other 46-47 states there are probably less smokers here.

Of course, being in a denser urban environment can give the impression of a lot of smokers since there are just more people and smoke carries pretty far.

[Hemlock140]

Because we have such strict laws on where you can smoke, it's hard to tell how many smokers there are. We have had the ban on smoking indoors and within 25' of any door for almost 10 years now, and since then several cities have banned smoking in some outdoor areas like parks. The general public will often complain and report people that violate this on a regular basis, while no one seems to mind the people that smoke marijuana in public.

[Polymorphist]

Whenever I walk downtown it seems like all I smell is cigarette smoke. I don't think that the 25 foot rule is observed most of the time as I see people leaning in doorways and lighting up. What I really dislike about tobacco cigarettes in particular is that the odor is very strong and it carries quite a distance, I don't think most smokers realize how strong and potent it really is. Breathe just a little bit of second-hand smoke in and you're congested for 30 minutes while your lungs try to do some damage control (at least I am, really annoying).

With the new relaxed demeanor toward marijuana I definitely see an increase in people lighting up outdoors, however the difference seems to be that cannabis smoke just isn't quite as toxic nor travel as far as tobacco smoke, not that i'd want to stand next to someone and breathe in a lung full of that, either.