“Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray” is an anti-smoking saying that has been printed on many images.
 
“A non-smoker says that kissing a smoker is like sucking at the end of a smoke stack or rubbing your nose in an ash tray” was printed in the Charlotte (NC) News on February 10, 1936. “I have heard it said that to kiss a girl that smokes is like licking an ash tray” was printed in The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT) on March 2, 1948. “Kissing a girl who smokes is like kissing an old ash tray” was printed in the Pensacola (FL) Journal on February 5, 1972. “Kissing a Smoker Is Like Licking a Dirty Ashtray,” a slogan of ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) was printed in the Burlington (NC) News-Times on October 16, 1973.
 
“‘Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.’ - Helen Rowland” was posted on X/Twitter by CyberBonn on August 11, 2009. Helen Rowland (1875-1950), who wrote the “Reflections of a Bachelor Girl” column in the New York (NY) World, is often credited with the saying, but it’s not known if or when she ever wrote it.
 
   
Newspapers.com
10 February 1936, Charlotte (NC) News, “Snapshots” by John W. Harden, pg. 5, col. 5:
A non-smoker says that kissing a smoker is like sucking at the end of a smoke stack or rubbing your nose in an ash tray…Which is realism in description for you.
 
Newspapers.com
2 March 1948, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), “The Public Forum” by Our Readers, pg. 8, cols. 6-7: 
“Lick An Ash Tray”
(...)
I have heard it said that to kiss a girl that smokes is like licking an ash tray.
 
Newspapers.com
10 March 1948, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), “The Public Forum” by Our Readers, pg. 8, col. 6-7:
“Lick an Ash Tray”
Editor, Tribune: I, too (like R. L. V.) had heard that kissing a girl that smokes is like licking an ash tray.
(...)
PANTY WAIST.
 
Newspapers.com
5 February 1972, Pensacola (FL) Journal, “Warning to Smokers” (editorial), pg. 2B, col. 1:
The baroness suggests that perhaps the line, “kissing a girl who smokes is like kissing an old ash tray,” may be more convincing than the one that “smoking may be hazardous to the general health.”
 
Newspapers.com
16 October 1973, Burlington (NC) News-Times, “Non-Smoking Americans Are Lashing Back” by Dorothy Marks (Women’s News Service), pg. 8A, col. 5:
ASH has about 20 different signs, some coming on strong like their dayglow bumper stickers “I Don’t Spit in Your Face, Don’t Blow Smoke in Mine,” “Kissing a Smoker Is Like Licking a Dirty Ashtray,” or “Smoking Causes Bad Breath, Then Cures It Permanently.”
(ASH = Action on Smoking and Health.—ed.)
 
Newspapers.com
27 December 1973, Fort Collins (CO) Coloradoan, “What smoking does” (AP), pg. 8, col. 2:
Guest speaker at an anti-smoking clinic, (Dr. Harvey—ed.) Rusk said, “A woman is six to eight years older after smoking for a while” and quoted a British slogan which says, “Kissing a girl who smokes is like kissing a dirty ashtray”. The slogan could also apply to men who smoke, the doctor reminded.
 
Newspapers.com
10 October 1974, The Aegis (Bel Air, MD), “Earthline,” pg. B-3, col. 8:
In California there is a soothing radio program from 1 to 5 in the morning that puts you to sleep, and repeats phrases like “Kissing someone who smokes is like kissing an ashtray.”
 
Newspapers.com
8 December 1974, Miami (FL) Herald, “He Hopes ASH Can Stop Smoking” by Eileen Foley, pg. 8-G, col. 1”
“Kissing a Smoker Is Like Licking a Dirty Ashtray.”
(A slogan of ASH, Action on Smoking and Health.—ed.)
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Is Kissing a Girl Who Smokes Like Licking an Ashtray?
Author:Randy Powell
Print Book, English, 1994
Edition:View all formats and editions
Publisher: Aerial fiction, [S.l.], 1994
 
Google Groups: alt.support.non-smokers
need eloquent quotes
D. Citron
Jan 6, 1995, 12:52:53 PM
OK. Here are a few of my favorite “eloquent quotes” about smoking:
1. Smoking Sucks.
2. Kissing a smoker is like licking a dirty ashtray.
3. Cancer Cures Smoking.
4. I don’t mind if you smoke if you don’t mind if I fart.
5. I don’t mind if you smoke if you don’t mind if I shit in your shoe.
     
X/Twitter
CyberBonn
@cyberbonn
“Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.” - Helen Rowland
8:37 AM · Aug 11, 2009
 
X/Twitter
Klaus-Dieter Thill
@kdtup
“Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.“ (Helen Rowland)
#closeup #outdoors #wall #building #ashtray #nopeople #photo #photography #iphonephoto #iphonephotography #photoart
#photographer #artofphotography #düsseldorf
12:17 PM · Feb 10, 2023