Introduccion: la rinitis alergica (RA) es un problema de salud publica y el habito del tabaco sigue teniendo importante prevalencia pese a numerosas medidas aplicadas a nivel mundial. Objetivo : estimar la asociacion entre tabaquismo y RA. Metodologia : estudio analitico, de casos y controles, en el cual los casos fueron pacientes con RA y los controles, pacientes con otras patologias de vias respiratorias altas no relacionadas con la rinitis. Realizado en el Hospital Universitario del Caribe, Cartagena, Colombia. Se analizaron los datos obtenidos en las encuestas. Para calcular la asociacion entre tabaquismo y RA se utilizaron ORs con sus respectivos intervalos de confianza del 95%. Se ajustaron por covariables mediante una prueba de regresion logistica multivariable. Una P<0.05 fue considerada estadisticamente significativa. Resultados : se incluyeron 53 casos y 140 controles. No se encontraron diferencias estadisticamente significativas en las variables sociodemograficas entre casos y controles. La asociacion entre fumadores activos y RA tuvo OR ajustado por variables confusoras de 1.02 (IC 95%, 0.25-4.24). Conclusiones : no se encontro asociacion entre tabaquismo y RA. Rev.cienc.biomed. 2014;5(2):205-210. PALABRAS CLAVE Rinitis; Rinitis alergica perenne; Habito de fumar. SUMMARY Introduction: the allergic rhinitis (AR) is a public health problem and the smoking continues having important prevalence in spite of numerous measures applied worldwide. Objective: to estimate the association between smoking and AR. Methods: analytic study, of cases and controls, in which the cases were patients with AR and the control ones, patients with other diseases of the high respiratory way non-related with the rhinitis. It was carried out in the Hospital Universitario del Caribe, Cartagena, Colombia. Data obtained in the surveys were analyzed. The OR with its respective confidence intervals of 95% were used to calculate the association between smoking and AR. Covariates were adjusted by means of a multivariable logistic regression. A P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: 53 cases and 140 controls were included. There were not found statistically significant differences in the socio-demographic variables between cases and controls. The association between active smokers and AR had OR adjusted by confusion variables of 1.02 (CI 95%, 0.25-4.24). Conclusion : there was not found association between smoking and AR. Rev.cienc. biomed. 2014;5(2):205-210. KEYWORDS Rhinitis; Perennial allergic rhinitis; Smoking.