How will they verify your smoking status?

[Hekate]

110. Exactly -- you're just using you're nose another way. I'm also a non-smoker.

The poster was talking about having to take a pee test, though. I'm sure there's a panel the lab can do that tests for nicotine while testing for opiates, meth, and all the rest. They pick up a ton of stuff if they're looking -- medications, hormones, contraceptives, and pregnancy. The kidneys are a heckuva filter.

Sadly, I know about the smell because I grew up in a house with smoking parents, a bunch of small kids, and one bathroom. It was normal to be taking a shower and have my mom come in to use the toilet, bringing her lit cigarette with her. The combination of steam, smoke, and the odor of nicotine in her urine used to make me queasy -- not from any sense of disgust at having to share the limited facilities that way, because privacy was at a premium after all. It's how I knew my teenaged daughter had started smoking, too -- despite not having to share facilities like that -- it was just such a pronounced odor that got left behind after she flushed and left the bathroom. It made me so sad. I'm pretty sure now that smoking is the reason my grandmother died of bladder cancer.

I don't believe in censuring or punishing smokers, but it is a huge health issue and doctors are right to ask. Patients would be stupid to lie to their doctors about that and a lot of other stuff.