Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: The Barden of England
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 02:49 AM

Damn - I thought the ban was coming to England in June next year - oh well.
I'm an ex-smoker who suffers in smokey places, so try wherever possible to avoid them as it does affect my voice something cronic. Forunately most folk clubs these days tend to have a no smoking policy which suits me - but as an ex smoker I try not to be 'holier than the next man' but it's sometimes difficult when a cigarette is burning in an ashtray and the smoke seems to be attracted to you.
John Barden

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 03:37 AM

Well, Melodeonboy, it doesn't seem to affect Growler (Chimney) Barlow - or to stop you sitting next to him seemingly by choice....

You may have noticed I generally don't, but I wouldn't be so rude as to ask him not to.

Or indeed Jeff RIPOHMS.

As an ex-smoker whose wife's death was probably caused by two main factors - smoking and Medway Maritime Hospital (with a bit of help from another doctor who made a disastrous choice of treatment for her migraines so causing the start of COPD and cerebellar ataxia) - I assert a smoker's liberty to do something that affects them more than anyone else, and the non-smokers' rights to shun them - but not to cast them out.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: kendall
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 09:25 AM

What would happen if you were to light up a piece of rubber, or an old army blanket in a public place? Is there a difference?

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Scrump
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 09:44 AM

Between rubber and an old army blanket?

Ah... I'll get me coat.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Hamish
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 11:18 AM

I went to an open mic a while back and there was a young girl who sang and she had a lovely voice. I noticed afterwards that she was smoking. "That'll wreck your voice" I opined. To which she said that she reckoned it improved her voice. Made it a little husky. A bit fuller, perhaps. Maybe she was right. But it's a fool's short term answer at best. "Listen to Joni Mitchell" I said. One of the finest voices in her prime: trashed to blazes now. And she's only 63.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 11:23 AM

Only... heh

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: melodeonboy
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 11:41 AM

Well, Richard, I suspect that it does actually affect Growler, but I'll leave Growler and his doctor to answer that one for you.

As for sitting next to him by choice, usually I don't. Growler (all round good bloke and gentleman that he is) knows my views on the subject and does not get upset when I move away from him - as I usually do if there's space available - and he often moves away from me to spare me the discomfort. I also do my very best not to make an issue of it in places where smoking is permitted, as it is my choice to come to a smoking venue in the first place. Hence my previous comments about how much I'm looking forward to the smoking ban and the fact that I often stay at home rather than going to a folk club if I know it's going to be smoky.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Bernard
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 12:47 PM

Rosie Hardman retired from public performance mainly because she could no longer tolerate tobacco smoke - even in small doses. She'd developed some sort of allergy to it.

She says that even if the concert was 'non smoking', the fact that the stage crew had been smoking a couple of hours before the sound check was enough to set her off.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Joybell
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 04:18 PM

My reaction to cigarette smoke is the same as Anne's and Mike's. The damage done to my respiratory system (and my voice) was caused by smokers. I had no choice except that of not working, (and that includes working in hospitals) shopping, attending social functions, lectures, visits to friends....
I have never been rude or aggressive when asking smokers to keep their smoke away from me. Nor have I been anything but nice about asking if a venue was smoke-free.
I wish I could say the same about some of the smokers I met in the course of my work. I have had smoke blown into my face deliberately.
Put up with endless tirades about "smokers rights". Smoking has never been a "right". Breathing is a right.
Endured nasty, sneaky behaviour - like smokers hiding their cigarettes while smoking in non-smoking areas - then producing them with a grin and a flourish.
I've been called "intolerant" "a whinger" "misinformed" "stupid" - given the red-herring argument.
Thank you, Mike for this thread. For allowing me to rave a bit. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Ebbie
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 04:37 PM

After 25 plus years of smoking, I quit more than 25 years ago. When someone is smoking outdoors I still kind of like the smell. However, these days, indoors- and when I can't get away - I get somewhat choked up. A few years back I didn't. Do most ex-smokers get more sensitive to it as they age, I wonder?

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 02:59 AM

Thanks you for the PMs and for all the relevant thoughts on the thread. Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 03:44 AM

A footnote to the smoking ban.
In the old days, if you were in a session in a smoky pub you would nip out for a breath of fresh air - nowadays you stay inside for the fresh air and go outside to be choked.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Scrump
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 04:43 AM

Roll on August 2007 in the UK! (IMHO)

And IMHO too! Hopefully that will be in time for Broadstairs, so I won't get almost asphyx... aspic... asfix... suffocated like I did in one or two venues there last time.

Meanwhile, I suppose I could buy one of those army surplus gas masks and don it while singing in pubs - might sound a bit muffled though

:-)

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: ossonflags
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 11:34 AM

I can only speak from experiance and what others tell me. I stopped smoking seven months ago -had smoked very heavilly for fifty years - decided I enjoyed singing more than I enjoyed smoking.

Now I know there is an improvement in my voice and better than that other people tell me that there is.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Anne Lister
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:53 PM

All I know is that I developed asthma at the age of 27, not necessarily connected to smoking (and I have never smoked myself) but to all manner of other allergens (dust, feathers, wool, pollens, fur etc), and from that date on I have noticed a significant increase in my breathing problems if anyone is smoking around me. Which of course affects the voice as well as my respiratory system.

So whether or not people want to accept the link with cigarettes and cancer is immaterial to me - there's definitely a link between tobacco smoke (and incense sticks) and the quality of my breathing and my voice. I'm sure all manner of other fumes are unhealthy too, and I, too, notice the difference between my lungs when I'm here in South Wales and when we're visiting London, but this thread is about smoking and I'm not sure why smokers get quite so aggressive about it all. I can't imagine that smokers who love music really want to hear their favourite singers cough and splutter, but maybe they get some kind of thrill from that?

Anne

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 02:06 PM

"I'm not sure why smokers get quite so aggressive about it all."

Addiction is a scary thing. It takes away a persons will.

At least that's what it seems like to me, but then again, I'm not an addict.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Mick Tems
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 02:31 PM

Llantrisant Folk Club holds meetings in a non-smoking room for nigh on eight years now, and the members like it and appreciate it. The Welsh Assembly has banned smoking in public places, and we're looking forward to next spring when we can enjoy clean air.

Lucky musicians used to play in Bermuda, and tales were legion about Bermuda Folk Club. It seemed that they banned smoking - even though the club met on the beach, in the open air!

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: The Sandman
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 04:00 PM

cigarette smoke, candle fumes, car exhaust fumes, are all bad for singers    voices,. If I smoked I wouldnt have the volume, and the range that I have.
How can professional folk singers afford to smoke anyhow.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: kendall
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 04:12 PM

We can't. My income took a nose dive when I lost my voice.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 11:05 PM

ANOTHER coulda, woulda, shoulda, outa.

PATHETIC - (this is sort of dribble drunkards drabble in their latter years)

smoking wrecked my voice and sapped my confidence

If you do not begin, TODAY, IMMEDIATELY, you will continue to sink deeper into "The Hole."

At some point, (and in your case it appears sooner than later) you WILL succumb.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

GeorgianSilver = 0

Smirnoff and distributors = 56.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 11:08 PM

Try "red-man" or "day's work"

When you gotta spit...just lay it on the keyboard...90% of the Mudcatter do, due, dew.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: The Sandman
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 04:11 AM

gargoyle.The sounds of silence.Hello darkness my old friend.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 09:35 AM

And I had always considered gargoyles as some bitter, twisted, gnarled looking projections on Cathedrals and Churches....where on earth did I get that from?

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Scoville
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 02:24 PM

I'm surprised that anyone was surprised by this. Really, inhaling any kind of smoke/air pollution is bad for you, in a lot of different ways both short-term and long-term (allergies, asthma, cancer, etc.). There's even some evidence that pets of smokers are more likely to get cancer because they not only inhale it but lick it when they bathe themselves. Of course, I grew up in/around big cities with bad air so I'll probably get lung cancer anyway.

I'm not even particularly sensitive to smoke (no allergies, asthma, etc.) and I'm not a singer but it does irritate me if I have to sit in it all evening.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 02:30 PM

"pets of smokers are more likely to get cancer"

Why anyone would smoke in their own home is beyond me... why not rub shit directly on the walls while you're at it......

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 04:36 PM

Bobby Sands did. Didn't he?

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 06:47 PM

OOOOOH

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Kaleea
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 08:27 PM

Ditto what Anne said!! I moved to San Diego after many years in the "midwest" USA & no longer have to stay away from many places because of the smoke. A few months ago, for the first time in many many years, I began to accept invitations to sing/play without having to ask about smoke as there is no smoking indoors in any public place (legally, that is).
Just imagine the shock & awe of my pals back in the "Bible Belt" when a few months ago I emailed several of 'em pics of me singing & playing in a well known BAR in the hip Ocean Beach area!! They're probably still praying for my lost soul.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 10:59 AM

Livin' sure does lead to dyin'

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 09:55 AM

Sho as this thread is livin' itsa gonna die eh?

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Rasener
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 01:30 AM

Went to the bowling Alley in Lincoln yesterday.

Amazing smoking rules.

No Smoking in most of the building. Smoking allowed in the areas where you sit whilst bowling. Now that makes sense to me NOT.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST,Bellatrix
Date: 03 Nov 10 - 03:46 PM

Right i just read some comments because i needed to know if it can damage your voice (need to know for college because i do performing arts) i just wanted to know ways you can damage your voice but i do not fully understand can it or can it not damage your voice because i smoke but appperently i have a nice voice so i dont know.

also Clinton Hammond sounds a bit like a lawyer talking about erroneous charges :) x

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: acegardener
Date: 03 Nov 10 - 05:53 PM

I gave up smoking because I do not like wearing cheap white trainers which seems to be the uniform of the smokers who stand puffing outside of pub doorways.

A bye product of doing this is that my singing voice has improved no end. I shall never be a 3 octave Orbison, but after a lifetime of growling out the pub favorites, I can now sing a sweet ballad when the occasion arrises.

Don't smoke, you know it makes sense. Nat King Cole smoked to get a distinct sound, but what a price he paid.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 04 Nov 10 - 07:42 AM

First, IQ has nothing to do with smoking. Some of the most intelligent people smoke.
It is denial, pure and simple. "It won't happen to me, I'm special."

People smoke to avoid the discomfort of not smoking. Anyone who says he/she enjoys it is fooling themselves.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Pierre Le Chapeau
Date: 04 Nov 10 - 08:46 PM

I smoke and I enjoy it?
Im sorry Kendell but you do not know me from Adam so what do you know of me "Fooling my self?

but I dont drive a car,
How many of you people on this thread drive.How many of you folk have two cars? but you cant compare car polution and the efects it has on people because driving a car is a nessesity. Really.

My throut is often lined with petrol fumes I can tatse it in the air

I have to breath in your poisionous fumes and Petrol AND Fosile fuel fumes are far more bloody leathal to me and above all the planet then a cigerette smoke.
kindest regards to all Pierre.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 05 Nov 10 - 08:30 AM

Smoking has great potential to shorten the lives and/or destroy the voices of people who smoke.

Kendall and Tom (Curmudgeon) know all too well what smoking can do to voices.

Linn

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: maple_leaf_boy
Date: 10 Dec 10 - 11:59 AM

At home, our smoking ban came into full effect in December 2007. One bar I used to frequent, the vast majority of people who went there
smoked. The last night that smoking was legal in bars, the place was
packed all night. There was another bar that I frequented afterwards
that allowed smoking on the patio, and you could take your drink outside
with you. That was nice for some people who like to have a smoke with
their beer.

Smoking regulations are getting even stricter now. I think it used to be 10 feet away from doors and windows everywhere you go. Now a lot
of places don't allow it on the property, or they have a designated
area. And the taxes went up again this year, and some tobacco brands
are increasing their wholesale prices.

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Jack Campin
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 06:44 PM

smoking can make your nipples fall off

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: Fossil
Date: 05 Dec 11 - 07:11 PM

Dear Pierre Le Hat, I am sure your reference to "fossil fuel fumes" wasn't aimed at me, so I'll let it pass...

Just watch it, though!

Yours ever

"Fossil" Fuell

Subject: RE: Smoking/smoke can damage your voice.
From: GUEST,Don Wise
Date: 06 Dec 11 - 06:58 AM

As a full-time non-(or should that be passive?)-smoker I have had enough bronchitis to last me a lifetime......At last the introduction of smoking bans means that going out and singing/making music has become possible, nay enjoyable, once more. If I'm honest, smoking was the main reason why I left The Garden Gnome Ceilidh Band- sitting in a van with 5 chain smokers on a 4 hour drive to London on a cold and damp December day was no health cure. Nor was doing a floor-spot with the Rev. Ken Loveless sitting in the front row and perpetrating serious industrial-level air pollution either-I had to break off singing.
The down side is that all the outdoor tables in cafes are now taken over by smokers...............