I chew gum while on the stand. Wrigglys Extra Spearment to be exact. I have never saw anything to make me think its bad. Butyou never know about the deer that you dont see. One of my buddies smokes on the stand all the time and i mean all the time. He has killed some very nice deer, know telling how many he has shot while he was smoking. Now I dont condone this at all, for one thing i dont smoke, but i have to admit its kinda of hard to argue with the success that he has had.