What can smokers do to mitigate the offensiveness and the couched retribution?

Don't smoke in the house, or if you do, keep it well ventilated, aired-out, and deodorized with an odor destroying product (not a sweet cover up). Candles made for Smokers are also available; they help, but will not eliminate the problem.

Keep closet doors closed, and don't smoke in the bedroom. Never put clothes worn back into the closet without either washing, cleaning, or spraying with something like Fabreze™ and airing out first. The smoke on one blouse can spread through a closet. The particles of smoke are so small, the size of many viruses; closet doors do not stop them, but it helps.

Ashtrays and butts stink; if they stay in your home or car the stale smell they produce can get nasty. We never use a car ashtray; we carry an empty Altoids can and dump it frequently. In the house, we have ashtrays that are the old patio melmac ashtrays, sort of divided in half, with a row of slots to hold the cigarettes in the middle. We fill one side with baking soda and use that to extinguish cigarettes (which it does immediately). We use the other side to drop ashes while we smoke, to keep the baking soda viable. I wash the ashtrays and rinse in vinegar before refilling them with baking soda.

Vinegar may actually be your best friend for getting rid of smoke smell in the house and car. You can mix one cup of white vinegar for every two cups of warm water in a large bowl or pot, and then add a scoop of baking soda; it should fizz. Wash down your walls, ceilings and moldings with it, using a sponge mop or brush. This will make residue much easier to remove and will not hurt the paint. Follow up with a vinegar based window washer for windows, in fact, plain white vinegar wiped with newspaper does the best window cleaning job of all.

You can put vinegar in a spray bottle, and mist the inside of the house, spraying high and letting it drop to the floor; the vinegar will trap the offensive molecules.

The same mixture of vinegar and baking soda that you used on the walls inside the house can work on the interior of the car. Wash down the windows, plastic moldings, and metals with a generous amount on a sponge. Do not use this on fabric, however; treat fabric as you would indoor carpet: saturate it with baking soda, spray with a diluted solution of essential oil and water. Let it sit overnight, and vacuum.

To do a total refresh on your car, you can fill a tub with vinegar and place it on the floor in the front seat, close the windows, open the floor vents and turn on the heat full blast. Let the engine run for an hour before removing the tub. If you are experiencing hot summer weather, you can allow the tub sit on the floor with the windows closed all day.