Do you have a source for that? I can tell with pretty good accuracy whether my students smoke from their voices (adult language learners, we take smoke breaks together and they have no reason to conceal it), and would be very surprised if I’m just that lucky and there’s nothing a person can pick up on acoustically.
reply20 years of heavy smoking :)
replyAlthough it does seem to affect some people more than others for sure, I guess it depends how and what you're smoking.
Despite popular belief, even heavy smoking does not alter your voice in a significant way.
replyI guess you don't listen to Sinatra.
Or John Mellencamp, who repeatedly states in interviews that he likes what smoking does to his singing voice.
replyDepends on what you're smoking
replybacon!
replyand mostly how.
replySource: it came to me in a dream.
replyThere's this myth (that came to you in pop culture) that you end up sounding like Tom Waits.
replyIn reality, some phlegm aside, their voice is still the same in any way that matters.
If you knew people who didn't smoke and started (not uncommon in the 80s and 90s, quite a few people I know started smoking in university, or after the stress of a first job, some even later), and also the inverse, you can trivially hear it for yourself.
My voice is exactly the same as before I started smoking heavily, and I have never had any of the associated problems that most people seem to have (lung capacity, stamina, infections, phlegm etc) - pot luck I guess, like most things
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