Cigarette Smoke in Small Apartment

[StrongerThanCeliac]

I ended up getting so drunk that I blacked out. I’ve got a lot of stress going on and just got out of hand at bars downtown near my apartment. 
 

Anyways, I live in a 300 something square foot apartment and me or someone smoked a few cigarettes in it. My A/C was out at the time. Now if I smoked a cigarette or two, my reaction would be to that and hopefully im feeling better soon. This happened Sunday night (9/10). I felt horrible Monday (assumed this was a hangover), the apartment reeked of cigarettes. Got the a/c working again and I felt better Tuesday, I changed the bedding, etc. But Wednesday morning I started to feel like I was glutened (delayed reaction I guess). And here I am Thursday, and it feels like a full blown celiac reaction. It typically takes me about 6 days to recover so hopefully I’m better soon. 
 

My concern is that since the apt is so small (under 400 square feet and the ac was off), is that the cigarette smoke got on my dry food (rice, vitamins, etc), plates, bowls, silverware. Do I need to get new vitamins, supplements, etc. or is this an overreaction? The smoke smell seems to be gone for the most part but seems as though I’m still catching whiffs of it here and there. I never smoke cigarettes, maybe I smoked one in like 2019 last. Is someone smoking cigarettes in here one time, enough to have ruined my apartment to an extent and ruined some of the food that I have in here? Could the vents be blowing out some of the secondhand smoke and I’m going to be sick for a while unless I change apartments? Thanks for your help. 

[patty-maguire]

There is no gluten in cigarette smoke, but second hand smoke can certainly make you feel awful.

If you feel like you've been glutened, it may have been something you ate or drank.  Not all alcoholic beverages are gluten free, so that's something we need to be careful of. 

Regarding second hand smoke getting on, or in your stuff, anything in a sealed container should be fine.  The vents will clear out most of it.  You may want to open up some windows to air it out.  Curtains, cushions, bedding etc could do with a wash or a trip through the dryer.  Some people use sprays like Febreze to help with odors like smoke.  I don't know if it works as I haven't tried it.  Vacuming and dusting your carpets and furniture will help too. 

I want to say something motherly like "take better care of yourself" but you probably know that and many of us have been there.  We all make mistakes.  I will say that with our condition we do need to be more careful and (sadly) more responsible than our friends may need to.  When we have too much and our guard is down is when were likely to make mistakes.  As tempting as it is to have a good blow out to reduce stress, there are better ways.  Exercise is great.  A good run or a trip to the gym does wonders.  A massage is a good stress reliever.  Meditation, yoga, a walk in nature...and get rid of whatever it is that's stressing you out.

All the best.  Hope you feel better soon.

[StrongerThanCeliac]

36 minutes ago, patty-maguire said:

There is no gluten in cigarette smoke, but second hand smoke can certainly make you feel awful.

If you feel like you've been glutened, it may have been something you ate or drank.  Not all alcoholic beverages are gluten free, so that's something we need to be careful of. 

Regarding second hand smoke getting on, or in your stuff, anything in a sealed container should be fine.  The vents will clear out most of it.  You may want to open up some windows to air it out.  Curtains, cushions, bedding etc could do with a wash or a trip through the dryer.  Some people use sprays like Febreze to help with odors like smoke.  I don't know if it works as I haven't tried it.  Vacuming and dusting your carpets and furniture will help too. 

I want to say something motherly like "take better care of yourself" but you probably know that and many of us have been there.  We all make mistakes.  I will say that with our condition we do need to be more careful and (sadly) more responsible than our friends may need to.  When we have too much and our guard is down is when were likely to make mistakes.  As tempting as it is to have a good blow out to reduce stress, there are better ways.  Exercise is great.  A good run or a trip to the gym does wonders.  A massage is a good stress reliever.  Meditation, yoga, a walk in nature...and get rid of whatever it is that's stressing you out.

All the best.  Hope you feel better soon.

Thank you. I’m very careful with what I drink and I don’t get glutened from that, unless I blacked out and had a shot of something gluten containing.

I have read that some cigarettes aren’t gluten free and celiacs on here are getting glutened from smoking them? I’ve also read about celiacs on here having a reaction to secondhand smoke? So I am a little worried about having a reaction to that. I am not sure what to do. 

[Scott Adams]

I believe that cigarette makers don't need to disclose their ingredients, so it would be tough to know for sure if any contain gluten. I believe American Spirit has in the past advertised its products as "natural, organic and additive-free," but obviously I don't know for sure if there could be any gluten in them, for example in the filter or paper wrapper.

https://truthinitiative.org/research-resources/traditional-tobacco-products/why-natural-american-spirit-cigarettes-could-be

[Grlybrainiac]

Last year, the owner of the condo unit under mine had two contractors working every day for about two weeks and they chainsmoked literally back-to-back. My unit was flooded with smoke (sometimes it was so bad that I coughed and my eyes watered). I’m extremely sensitive to gluten (including airborne, touching surfaces, etc) and did not get sick from it at all. My unit still reeks of cigarette smoke and I am not being glutened by whatever is lingering the surfaces. My kitchen cabinets smell so bad - I recently put a brand new plastic bag in one of the cupboards and when I went to get it out a week later, it smelled like cigarettes. That being said, I’ve eaten food that has been sitting in my cabinets and have not been glutened from that either. Based on my experience, I’m thinking that you’re being glutened from something else?

[StrongerThanCeliac]

2 hours ago, Grlybrainiac said:

Last year, the owner of the condo unit under mine had two contractors working every day for about two weeks and they chainsmoked literally back-to-back. My unit was flooded with smoke (sometimes it was so bad that I coughed and my eyes watered). I’m extremely sensitive to gluten (including airborne, touching surfaces, etc) and did not get sick from it at all. My unit still reeks of cigarette smoke and I am not being glutened by whatever is lingering the surfaces. My kitchen cabinets smell so bad - I recently put a brand new plastic bag in one of the cupboards and when I went to get it out a week later, it smelled like cigarettes. That being said, I’ve eaten food that has been sitting in my cabinets and have not been glutened from that either. Based on my experience, I’m thinking that you’re being glutened from something else?

Thank you! That definitely makes me feel better. I hope I was glutened by something else. If that’s the case, I’ll be on the up and up sooner rather than later. 
 

Unless of course, your contractors were smoking American spirit (gluten-free cigarettes) lol.  But you’re probably right, it must be something else. Thanks for your feedback!

[Grlybrainiac]

43 minutes ago, StrongerThanCeliac said:

Thank you! That definitely makes me feel better. I hope I was glutened by something else. If that’s the case, I’ll be on the up and up sooner rather than later. 
 

Unless of course, your contractors were smoking American spirit (gluten-free cigarettes) lol.  But you’re probably right, it must be something else. Thanks for your feedback!

It’s funny because after I posted my response…I was thinking the same thing lol. “What if I just told this person that cigarette smoke is safe, but the ones that the contractors happened to be smoking were gluten-free and the ones smoked in their apartment weren’t.” For your sake I really do hope it’s not, smoke gets into everything 😭. Fingers crossed that you feel better soon!

[StrongerThanCeliac]

13 hours ago, Grlybrainiac said:

It’s funny because after I posted my response…I was thinking the same thing lol. “What if I just told this person that cigarette smoke is safe, but the ones that the contractors happened to be smoking were gluten-free and the ones smoked in their apartment weren’t.” For your sake I really do hope it’s not, smoke gets into everything 😭. Fingers crossed that you feel better soon!

Haha you’re fine. Also, my washer/dryer  (studio apartments here get in all-in-one washer/dryer which sucks and doesn’t dry well at all) so I just bought all new bedding. I did not want to wash the sheets and sleep on wet sheets. The brand new bedding that I bought (which is 100% polyester) has some sort of strong smell (not sure that it’s gluten). No way I could get glutened by brand new bedding right? Lol I didn’t feel the celiac really come on until sleeping in the new bedding for a full night. 

 

[StrongerThanCeliac]

39 minutes ago, StrongerThanCeliac said:

Haha you’re fine. Also, my washer/dryer  (studio apartments here get in all-in-one washer/dryer which sucks and doesn’t dry well at all) so I just bought all new bedding. I did not want to wash the sheets and sleep on wet sheets. The brand new bedding that I bought (which is 100% polyester) has some sort of strong smell (not sure that it’s gluten). No way I could get glutened by brand new bedding right? Lol I didn’t feel the celiac really come on until sleeping in the new bedding for a full night. 

 

I believe I’ve reacted to airborne gluten before (got sick after delivering from DoorDash) but that was hot, freshly cooked gluten food lol. Surely sheets sitting in a store for days wouldn’t somehow cause me to react to the smell even if they were doused in gluten? I’m not sure.