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The damage that smoking can do has been detailed quite thoroughly. Financially, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the average cost of a pack of cigarettes is $8.39, and a calculator is provided to give smokers an idea of how much they’d save over time if they quit. The impacts on a smoker’s health are dire, too. The National Health Service in the U.K. underscores the fact that everything from aching joints to Alzheimer’s and gallstones can be more likely to befall a smoker, as well as the likelihood of various cancers dramatically increasing. 

The dangers of passive smoking, of course, are also critical to take into account. Even beyond that, those who regularly smoke in their home can cause damage to their paint, furnishings, wallpaper, and other items. Some objects in our homes, naturally, require ventilation too, and one prominent one for gamers or others who use advanced PCs is the precious CPU. This is, effectively, the brain of a computer, and smoking near it can cause a range of issues. 

The delicate components of a computer can be difficult to access to clean of everyday dust buildup as it is, and the discoloration that can result from cigarette smoke can settle on surfaces and make it harder still. Many consider a switch to vaping instead of smoking cigarettes to be a preferable option for their health. While it does result in a lower degree of damaging substances in the air, it also poses a rather different and unique threat to a CPU too, and you shouldn’t vape near your games consoles or PC either. Let’s take a look at the effects that smoking can have on our devices, as well as an example of an enterprising refurbisher’s efforts to repair such damage.

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The harm that smoking can do to a smoker’s lungs is also well documented. A computer’s CPU needs to breathe to keep cool, considering how hard-working this component is, and the dangers of clogging are, ironically, much the same as they are for the lungs of a human being. A fan plays a vital role in the safe and efficient operation of many PCs by providing ventilation, thereby helping the system to cope with the significant amounts of heat it can produce in operation. Damage to this system can harm its overall performance, just as it can with our bodies. This explains why smoking was banned on airplanes, for instance. 

Maher Karam-Hage M.D. reports to the MD Anderson Cancer Center at The University of Texas that, “while nicotine has many effects on the body, it’s not what’s causing illnesses or damaging your lungs. The damage is actually done by tar – the black, sticky substance created when some of the chemicals in cigarettes burn and melt together.” If this tar is able to collect within the body of a PC, it can impede the fans’ operations, and this kind of contamination can also worsen the state of the model’s internals by encouraging more dust to accumulate. Dust and similar particles can gradually accumulate in even the best-cared-for machines, and the longer they’re allowed to do so, the more daunting the clean-up job may be. Couple this with the fact that there are some very delicate pieces in that case which can be easily damaged with an inexpert touch, and it’s clear that it’s a job to be extremely careful with. 

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There’s something incredibly satisfying about seeing a seemingly unsalvageable item come out the other end looking (almost) sparkling new. We’ve previously shared the stunning restoration of a Jaguar that had been left in a garage for 15 years. The art of refurbishing can be unpredictable, sometimes requiring some light tinkering and shining and other times calling for a much deeper clean. It makes all the toil worth it, and YouTube’s Madness727 certainly had to toil in one video posted to the channel in November 2025. The creator describes the refurb job as an “ASUS 9800GT MATRIX that came from a Smoke environment,” and it soon seems apparent how its environment affected it:

Over the course of a video lasting an hour and 11-and-a-half minutes, Madness727 painstakingly separated and cleaned the components, using everything from a toothbrush to running water from a faucet to clear away the brown, rust-like grime. The secret weapon, the creator reported, was degreaser, which they noted was “strong … usually … cigarette smoke … It’s, like, difficult to remove off of hardware, but this just dissolves it.” After all that work, the GPU looks far, far better, but the smoke exposure still left a lasting mark. 

Madness727 concludes, “the bad state of the cable… clearly shows that it has been, uh, used and it’s been in a smoke environment.” The CDC reports that, in 2022, there were 28.8 million adults in the United States that considered themselves current smokers of cigarettes. In addition, CDC data from two years later revealed that 1.63 million U.S. students were current vapers. These numbers are significant, and those unwilling or unable to quit should be sure to keep in mind another risk they may not have considered: The one to their tech.