What I sometimes find fascinating is that office politics have become
shaped by smoking since smokers have been segregated to the loading
docks for their bi-hourly (more like hourly) 'butt-breaks.'

The smokers shoot the breeze together on a regular basis, become
fast friends, and then begin to circle their professional wagons
to the point where they develop close professional relationships.

Whole departments get formed of these tobacco addicts.

Hey SINS, maybe you should cultivate the art of lighting up GOOD
tobacco (like 10-dollar cigars) yourself, and fire up one of them
stogies. I never smoked a thing until I tried one of 'em to keep
the mozzies away at a late night airport party. Discovered, at the
age of 40, that Winnie Churchill had something there, and now get
through maybe half of one fine cigar per month during the summer. But
geez, the second-hand from those things is like Pittsburgh at
it's smokiest! Fight fire with smoke!

I think it's the horrible junk in cigarette tobacco which causes
most of the immediate ill effects.