Is this what is making my cigarettes stale?

[JoshD]

ok i am asking this question in the chemistry secion because i am looking for a legitimate answer from someone who knows chemistry well and would be able to validly answer this question.

i work at an ice rink. everytime i buy a new pack of cigs, they taste fine but then i go to work and am in an ice rink for two hours with my open pack with me....and by the time i get home from work they taste horrible....is being in the rink for a couple of hours drying out my cigarettes? cuz the rink is really really cold.

i have found mixed responses all over the internet about this issue. some say that cold weather (putting your cigs in the freezer, for example) makes the tobacco dry out, but some say that the cold weather makes them fresher. to me it would make more sense that an ice rink or a freezer would actually dry out the tobacco because it is actually very dry in the air of a rink or freezer and its not a damp kind of cold.

so if someone could chemistrily (not a word, i know) answer this question that would be great, thanks.

 

[Dannystaples]

Well sounds to me like your idea is pretty much there, but why drying them out makes them taste different I don't know.

What I would say is that, seeing as you are at work, you are likely to be working up some sort of a sweat but if the air is dry like you said, then yes the dry air will be drying out your cigarrettes but then because you are sweating, your cigarrettes are going to absorb all of the wet air from your body. That to me would be more of a reason why your cigs taste off when you have been working simply because they are getting ruined in your warm pockets. You could test this theory by keeping them away from your body at work and seeing if they still taste off.

I mean sweat should be mainly just water, but then it may be taking some of the preservative chemicals out of the cardboard of the box, or the adhesive that they use to make the seal of the paper may be being transfered onto the tobacco and then making the taste change. It may also be something like your deoderant may be being transfered onto the tobacco through close contact of the box on your clothes.