I occasionally worked in an office like that. The air was thick with smoke.
Hard to imagine now.
Weird little story - I worked for a while in a small office with 2 smokers
they were both considerate and kept the cigarettes on the far side from my desk and blew the smoke out towards the corridor
I started coughing one day and they asked if I was OK
I commented that it was the smoke from Phil's cigarette and I was just having a bad day - but would be OK
Phil was mortified
until Steve commented that it was strange becuase he had lit his one a while ago and had accidentally moved it to my side of his desk - so it was far closer
We did some tests (we were like that - there was probably some work that needed doing but........)
anyway - turned out over the next few weeks that I could always tell when Phil lit a cigarette
but not Steve
they tried all sorts or techniques but could not find out why I was better with one that the other
even if they swapped seats I could still tell
It must have been something to do with how they smoked - but we could never find out why
even worked in the pub!!!