Do the surgeons require a nicotine test with no history of smoking? Also, respiratory clearance if you have sleep apnea?

There would be no need to do nicotine testing if you don't smoke, vape, or use a patch or gum. I can't speak to all surgeons, but mine requires testing to see if you have sleep apnea before surgery. If you're already diagnosed with it, you just have to continue using the cpap machine before the surgery and for the first 6 weeks after.

my surgeon required everyone to have a nicotine test. There will always people who say they don't smoke when they actually do- so I'm assuming that's why.

Mine required only the sleep apnea test, but it was more so the hospital could prepare for any anesthesiology requirements or post-op recovery pertaining to CPAP patients. It wasn't really to rule anyone out in terms of candidacy.

The nicotine test seems to be a surgeon-specific thing -- some do, some don't. I would definitely advise not lying to your care team about smoking though, and just be upfront about whether you're still smoking / struggling to quit / etc. The same about any criteria they may have set out in their pre-op approval criteria. Some things may sound like stupid criteria for them to have, but it's not worth having your recovery affected by things you didn't think would be a problem.