Ellie N.'s Story: Asthma from Secondhand Smoke at Work

A story from CDC's Tips From Former Smokers® campaign.

A job she loved

Ellie sings, plays the guitar, loves being around people, and describes herself as 5 feet tall with a 10-foot personality. She proudly identifies as part of the LGBTQ+ community.

She never smoked. But her parents both did, and she worked as a bartender in a bar that allowed smoking — a bar with many LGBTQ+ customers and plenty of smokers.

"It was terrifying!"

In 1990, in her mid-30s, Ellie had her first asthma attack. "I had trouble breathing. I was wheezing. It was terrifying!" After several hospital visits, her doctor traced the attacks to secondhand smoke — breathing other people's cigarette smoke.

"I loved what I did. I loved the people where I worked. But every time someone asked, 'Can I have change for cigarettes?' I knew I was going to be breathing in more of that smoke. And when I went home each night, I was afraid that I was going to wake up in the middle of the night not being able to breathe."

Forced to choose between her health and her job, she quit.

Growing up with smoke

"I grew up in a household where both of my parents smoked, and I didn't like it. I didn't like the smell of it. I remember going on trips cramped up in the car with the windows closed. It was filled with smoke. I would feel queasy and sick."

Living with asthma

• She rarely sings in public: one person smoking nearby could set off an attack. "Worrying that someone's smoking could trigger an attack limits where I can go and what I can do."
• She now lives with her partner and works in a smokefree workplace, and readily asks friends, family and strangers not to smoke around her.
• She feels much better, but still worries about meeting smoke — and is sad to have left a job she loved.

"Everyone deserves to work in a smokefree workplace."

Her videos

• "It was Terrifying to Get an Asthma Attack": "I could feel my lungs getting tighter. I knew I couldn't be around the smoke or I was going to die, or something bad was going to happen to me."
• Smoke and the LGBT Scene: smoking, bars and how people define their identity.

More: all Tips videos, Ellie's print ad, the facts on asthma and secondhand smoke, and other Tips stories about asthma — Jamason C., Jessica S. and Nathan M.

Free help to quit

Sources

Based on "Ellie N.'s Story," Tips From Former Smokers, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The page's portraits, print ad and banner are not reproduced; its videos are on YouTube only.