What Absorbs Cigarette Smoke: Ways to Get Rid of It Indoors

Activated charcoal, baking soda, white vinegar and coffee grounds all absorb cigarette smoke odor from the air and from fabrics, and an air purifier with a carbon filter absorbs the gases that carry that smell indoors. 

Cigarette smoke is also composed of numerous chemicals including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and benzene, none of which are removed by odor absorbers alone. None of them remove thirdhand smoke residue that has already settled into walls, upholstery and carpet, and none of them make secondhand smoke safe to breathe. Absorbing the smell and removing the health risk are two different jobs.

What absorbs cigarette smoke (smell) indoors? 

Second and thirdhand smoke: how to limit exposure and effects

The best way to limit exposure to secondhand smoke—the combination of the smoke emitted from the burning cigarette plus the smoke emitted from the user’s mouth—is to distance yourself from the vicinity of the smoker.

But simply limiting your contact with smokers is not enough to prevent unwanted exposure: thirdhand smoke is also a problem. The California Department of Public Health describes thirdhand smoke as the phenomenon in which residue from smoke remains indoors in walls, windows and furniture. Thirdhand smoke can react with other air pollutants and stick to hair, skin and clothing, as it transfers from one location to another, even on non-smokers. This unhealthy residue can also build up and collect in dust and linger for years.

Thirdhand smoke is difficult to remove by traditional cleaning methods such as wiping or vacuuming, nor is there good evidence to suggest that even strong ventilation can remove its traces. The California Department of Public Health warns that thirdhand smoke residue is a source of long-term exposure to harmful pollutants, and has been linked to health risks including asthma and cancer.

Simple ways to absorb cigarette smoke odors

So how can you remove cigarette smoke indoors? As long as no new toxins are added by someone continuing to smoke in your environment, it is possible to eliminate the scent of cigarette smoke, if not all of the toxic effects. You can do this with some very basic and affordable products that you might already have in your home:

Vinegar

The sharp abrasiveness of vinegar can effectively cut unpleasant scents like cigarette smoke, and it has a chemical advantage over ordinary cleaners. A 2011 review in the International Journal of General Medicine notes that cleansers which dissolve nicotine must be acidic, and that most soaps are alkaline and will not effectively remove nicotine residue. 

Try mixing vinegar and lemon juice in a bottle and spraying it as a mist the way you might use an air freshener. County health departments recommend vinegar and lemon juice as non-toxic substitutes for commercial air fresheners. Or place bowls of white vinegar out in a room where people have been smoking overnight; by morning the smell of the smoke may be gone. If you are wiping down smooth or hard surfaces that have nicotine residue, vinegar can be used as an acidic cleaner to dissolve nicotine. 

And for more immediate relief of cigarette smoke odors, spray vinegar on a towel or cloth and wave it around the room for a few minutes. Note that while it may be possible to remove smoke residue from hard surfaces such as walls and furniture, the same 2011 review finds that it may be impossible to truly remove all smoke traces from carpets.

Baking soda and activated charcoal

Sprinkling either baking soda or activated charcoal powder (sold at pet stores) is a common household method for cutting cigarette odors. If you are trying to reduce the cigarette stench in a room, you can either put the powders in open bowls, or sprinkle on a surface. To get the smell out of a small item, you can place it in a closed container with baking soda or activated charcoal (making sure the item does not touch it) for a few days, which is a method the Library of Congress recommends for removing smoke and mildew odors from books and documents.

Coffee grounds: Coffee not only wakes you up in the morning, it may help reduce odors. Try filling several coffee filters with fresh grounds, placing them in the smoke-affected area and leaving them for several days.

What doesn’t work for removing smoke smells?

• Masking with air freshener or scented candles: adds fragrance on top of smoke rather than removing anything, and some air fresheners can themselves trigger asthma symptoms.

• Ozone generators sold as “air purifiers”: the EPA cautions against ozone-generating devices for indoor use; ozone is a lung irritant at the concentrations needed to affect odor.

• Ventilation alone: opening windows dilutes fresh smoke, but neither ventilation nor conventional cleaning reliably removes the thirdhand residue already settled into surfaces and dust.

Technology to aid with reducing cigarette smoke odors

If the home-grown methods for absorbing the scent of cigarette smoke do not prove effective, it may be worth trying out an air purifier to remove the smoke smell. However, the CDC warns that while “eliminating smoking in indoor spaces fully protects nonsmokers from exposure to secondhand smoke,” no air purifier or conventional ventilation system can fully eliminate exposure of non-smokers to secondhand smoke. 

So, while it is evident that the only way to fully do away with unwanted secondhand smoke exposure is by completely banning smoking in an indoor space, using an air purifier might at least help mitigate the adverse health effects and reduce the unpleasant odor.

Do air purifiers remove cigarette smoke? 

Yes, air purifiers with a carbon filter absorb the gases that carry cigarette smoke odor, and HEPA  filters capture the fine particles in smoke, but they do not remove thirdhand smoke residue already settled into walls, furniture, and carpet.

Different types of air purifiers handle cigarette smoke in different ways.

PECO Filters: Molekule air purifiers contain PECO technology and can remove larger smoke particles, as well as destroy the gaseous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of smoke using a light-activated catalytic reaction. Photo Electrochemical Oxidation, or PECO, can also help with tobacco smoke odor, as the PECO process breaks down pollutants at a molecular level. LEDs activate the catalytic process, generating hydroxyl radicals which oxidize pollutants, including cigarette smoke chemicals, and breaking them down into basic components of water vapor and carbon dioxide. 

Unlike the traditional filters discussed below, which simply capture pollutants, PECO technology can destroy pollutants like VOCs in the air. In addition to destroying toxic chemicals from smoke, Molekule’s PECO-HEPA Tri-Power filter uses a layer of HEPA to capture 99.97% of small particles like ash and soot, and a layer of carbon to adsorb odors.

Carbon Filters: Carbon filters are the most commonly used type of filter to remove gases. They are designed to trap the gases as they pass through a bed of activated charcoal, which contains tiny pores to increase its surface area and thus creates more places on the filter to capture smoke VOCs. 

Gases stick to the carbon filter using a process called adsorption, which allows the gaseous pollutants to stick to the outside of the carbon. If you plan on using a carbon filter, the EPA recommends that it contains a substantive amount of carbon to increase effectiveness.

Another caveat is that carbon filters must be replaced frequently. Following the manufacturer’s guidelines for changing the filter is a good standard, though if you have any doubts or smell noxious gas, replace it immediately. 

Note that while carbon filters can help deal with smoke odors, tobacco smoke can land and permeate onto most surfaces and it is difficult to get rid of the smell entirely and consistently. Lastly, be aware that carbon filters do not remove dangerous carbon monoxide in homes, and you should have a separate carbon monoxide detector in your home.

HEPA Filters: This type of air filter is rated to use mechanical filtration to capture 99.97% of particles 0.3 microns in size, which includes some smoke particles. On its own, though, HEPA does not address smoke odor, the smell of cigarette smoke is carried by gases and volatile compounds, which pass straight through a mechanical particle filter. That is why filters aimed at smoke pair HEPA with carbon, or with a technology that breaks the gases down rather than trapping particles.

For many people, the smell of smoke is what warrants immediate attention, and so the DIY methods presented in this article are a good first line of defense for getting rid of the immediate noxious smell of smoke. But for those who are more concerned with long term health and indoor pollution, air purifiers and filters might be a better way to go. 

Regardless, the best and most effective way to remove the effects of cigarette smoke’s second and third-hand effects is to limit, if not entirely eliminate, your exposure to cigarette smoke.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does cigarette smoke smell last indoors?

Airborne smoke clears within hours, but thirdhand smoke residue in walls, fabric and dust can linger for years.

Does baking soda really get cigarette smoke out of carpet and furniture?

It reduces the smell but does not remove the nicotine and tar residue underneath.

How do you get cigarette smoke smell out of clothes?

Wash with a cup of white vinegar added to the cycle — vinegar's acidity dissolves nicotine where alkaline soaps do not.

Can you get cigarette smoke residue off walls?

Wipe with a vinegar solution to dissolve nicotine residue, though heavy long-term smoking often means sealing and repainting is needed too.

Does cigarette smoke smell mean the air is still harmful?

Not necessarily, a room that no longer smells of smoke can still carry thirdhand smoke on surfaces and in dust.

How long does it take to clear cigarette smoke from a room?

With windows open on opposite sides, visible smoke and the strongest odor typically clear within an hour or two, though smell held in fabrics and surfaces takes far longer.