Your cigar stinks more?

March 2, 2010 2:22 AM

[TV vs. Reality askme] Just watched an episode of Law and Order where Anthony Anderson chooses a cigar over some type of nose vapor rub offered by his partner when they encounter a decomposing body. The science escapes me. Is this even possible?

Even going back to Quincy MD, my TV experience is that you either hold your breath, gag or use some type of vicks vaporub when encountered with a foul stench. A cigar seems novel, but as a former cigar smoker it seems impossible.

Science behind it? Or TV gimmick?

posted by Funmonkey1 to Science & Nature (14 answers total)

Best answer: I would imagine a cigar could work in several ways:
* As a filter: the air breathed is drawn through a mass of smoldering vegetation. This would probably burn up some of the more unstable compounds and trap others as they adsorb to the organic matter.
* As a masking agent: the diffused stench from the corpse is overpowered by the concentrated aroma that is emitted much closer, same principle as the VapoRub.
* As a subtle reminder to breathe in through the mouth and out through the nose.

One of the problems I see with using a cigar is that it isn't applied constantly - when you put a smelly camphor/menthol compound on your face you inhale it with every breath, whereas you don't actually breathe through a cigar as if it were a snorkel.
posted by PontifexPrimus at 4:06 AM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure if this counts as high level evidence, but my great aunt and great uncle, now retired GPs, both took up smoking in medical school, specifically to counter the smell of the dissection room. My great aunt quit as soon as she had passed anatomy, whereas my uncle has remained a life long pipe smoker.
posted by roofus at 4:13 AM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The debonair Det. Bunk on The Wire always used a cigar too, and I pretty much take The Wire as gospel, so I'd guess it works.
posted by sallybrown at 4:45 AM on March 2, 2010 [5 favorites]

I vote mostly ineffective albeit deeply macho affectation.

Also, the idea of using both Vicks and a cigar, thus creating a de facto menthol cigar...hmmm...sounds pretty awful.
posted by applemeat at 5:13 AM on March 2, 2010

I smoked a cigar once, and that's all I could smell and taste for like the next day. I'm willing to believe it works well enough.

Made my tongue all tingly, too!
posted by Jinkeez at 5:31 AM on March 2, 2010

Long term smoking adversely affects olfactory ability. I'm still looking for an article on the short term effects. I vote effective based on personal experience. I rehabbed a moldy house once and dang if cigars weren't my new best friend.
posted by malp at 5:56 AM on March 2, 2010

My sister has very little sense of smell. She can only smell ammonia and cigar smoke. I don't know what that means, except that maybe cigar smoke is especially pungent? Maybe it hits a different part of the smell receptors.
posted by TooFewShoes at 6:01 AM on March 2, 2010

You wouldn't use the cigar as a filter unless you were a crazy person. Cigars are smoked by drawing the smoke into the mouth, holding it there, then expelling it. The smoke is not drawn into the lungs like the smoke from a cigarette generally is. Between the larger size and the lack of a filter only a very hardcore cigar smoker would draw the smoke into his or her lungs.
posted by jedicus at 6:33 AM on March 2, 2010

I heard smoking can dampen your ability to smell. So maybe that's the reason?
posted by sandraregina at 6:40 AM on March 2, 2010

Best answer: My father was a Marine Patrol Officer and occasionally had to be on the scene when corpses were hauled out of the water. He kept a box of Swisher Sweets in his glove compartment (right next to the rubber gloves) for just such occasions.

He called them his "corpse cigars"
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 7:00 AM on March 2, 2010 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Two explanations- the cigar smell masks the death smell. In the stories I've heard, they don't smoke it as much as they just split it in half and stick it in their noses.

Other, possible explanation- whatever receptors in your smell-sensor that react to death also react to cigar smell. So if you get those receptors busy smelling smoke, they are already "full" and won't detect the death smell.

Three- something to focus on besides not vomiting. (I also think nicotine might have some anti-vomit effects, but I'm not sure.)
posted by gjc at 7:17 AM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

Best answer: An officer with the NYPD has told me directly that homicide detectives carry the cigars to mask the corpse smell. No idea what the science is behind it, but it's apparently a fairly common practice.
posted by DeWalt_Russ at 8:39 AM on March 2, 2010 [1 favorite]

A college roommate smoked a cigar in our apartment and the whole place stank the entire next day. So yes, echoing others, that it would mask the smell.
posted by puritycontrol at 8:41 AM on March 2, 2010

Response by poster: I never thought a cigar had another use aside from smoking. The "Corpse Cigars" answer is something straight out of NCIS....
posted by Funmonkey1 at 9:11 AM on March 2, 2010