RE: Secondhand smoke from apartment neighbors - Do I have rights?

Question

I live in an apartment building and neighbor smokes. The smoke gets into my son's room and, despite installing an air filter designed for smoke particles it still seeps in and smells. i can't tell them to stop smoking - it's their home - it's their right.

Is there anyway you know of that i can rectify the situation for the benefit of my young son's health? Can I demand improvements be made to the walls? Do I have any rights as to what carcinogens get into my home?

Answer 1

I am just wondering what kind of a wall you have.
If smoke gets in from next door then what kind of a wall can it be? I just don't get it.
I have seen UK homes and have to say their partition walls are a joke but even plasterboard will not let smoke through.

Surely there is something wrong with your wall and that's where you should concentrate on, I mean' use even sealing PAINT, that'll keep smoke from coming in....

next, take the air filter BACK, get your money BACK and make sure you buy a working air filter, this shouldn't be too difficult to get!

Next, if you are in talking terms with your neighbour perhaps you can ask them to smoke in another room, I wouldn't mind if I was them, it depends on the kind of people they are.
Good luck

Answer 2

If apartment stipulates on lease NO SMOKING then they are going against the lease. However if apartments allow smoking there isn't anything you can do about it. Either get air purifier or you'll have to move to aparetment that doesn't allow smoking. If they're not breaking any rules the police can't do a thing about it. It isn't up to police to tell people in next apartment not to smoke if there is a NO SMOKING rule for apartment building. That would be for the apartment management to enforce only if apartment building has a NOT SMOKING policy.

Answer 3

You could ask the owner if there is another room you could move to, away from the smoker. But because you don't own the apartment, you can not stop him from smoking. Plus if the man or woman doesn't know that the smoke is bothering you (they are doing it in their room I assume) then it could also be best to inform them. But be polite, being bitchy makes the situation worse. Or your third option could be to save money and find an apartment that doesn't allow smoking.

Answer 4

I think that i would just move. You know, just a word here. Unless your child has health problems already, that smoke is unlikely to cause harm. Millions of people have been raised in homes where not only did people smoke, but they used coal and wood stoves for heat and have lived well into their 80's. The current situation with the smoking bans and such has caused nothing more than mass hysteria.

Answer 5

You can complain to management, but you'd probably have to demonstrate some type of medical problem (i.e. asthma) for them to do anything about it. Or find a new non-smoking building to live in.

Answer 6

------------- The Largest study on Second Hand Smoke ever done by Enstrom
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/326/7398/1057
“No significant associations were found for current or former exposure to environmental tobacco smoke before or after adjusting for seven confounders and before or after excluding participants with pre-existing disease. No significant associations were found during the shorter follow up periods of 1960-5, 1966-72, 1973-85, and 1973-98.”

“Enstrom has defended the accuracy of his study against what he terms ‘illegitimate criticism by those who have attempted to suppress and discredit it.’". (Wikipedia)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2164936/?tool=pmcentrez

------ Court rules that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is NOT a Class A carcinogen
http://www.tobacco.org/Documents/980717osteen.html
“There is evidence in the record supporting the accusation that EPA ‘cherry picked’ its data” … “EPA's excluding nearly half of the available studies directly conflicts with EPA's purported purpose for analyzing the epidemiological studies and conflicts with EPA's Risk Assessment Guidelines” (p. 72)

-------- OSHA will NOT regulate something that’s NOT hazardous
http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table=INTERPRETATIONS&p_id=24602
“Air contaminants, limits employee exposure to several of the main chemical components found in tobacco smoke. In normal situations, exposures would not exceed these permissible exposure limits (PELs), and, as a matter of prosecutorial discretion, OSHA will not apply the General Duty Clause to ETS.”

Study about health & Smoking Bans – The National Bureau of Economic Research
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14790
“Workplace bans are not associated with statistically significant short-term declines in mortality or hospital admissions for myocardial infarction or other diseases.”

http://www.cigarmony.com/downloads/smoking%201440.pdf
“Conclusions: Our results indicate no association between childhood exposure to ETS(environmental tobacco smoke) and lung cancer risk.”

Showtime television, "How the EPA, CDC, Lung Association, and etc." support their claims.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGApkbcaZK4

US National Cancer Institute researcher explains the frauds involved in secondhand smoke media reports.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9gtMKB6X2o

Then the US Surgeon General went over all the studies to date in 2006 again and even though he went on public TV and announced "No safe level", the report itself showed exactly the opposite.
---The evidence is … not sufficient to infer a causal relationship between exposure to secondhand smoke and an increased risk of stroke. (p. 13)
---The evidence is … not sufficient to infer a causal relationship between secondhand smoke exposure from parental smoking and the onset of childhood asthma.(p. 13)
---The evidence is inadequate to infer the presence or absence of a causal relationship between exposure to secondhand smoke during infancy and childhood cancer.(p. 11)

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/secondhandsmoke/report/executivesummary.pdf

Answer 7

You can sue under nuisance (tort) laws -- if you can demonstrate that the smoke is harming you, and that you have made efforts to get the people to stop and/or to block the problem.

The specifics vary by state, so you'll need to speak with an attorney licensed in your state.

Answer 8

If you don't like smelling their cigarette smoke you could always move... or ask that they move.

Answer 9

They will just tell you to move. I wish there was more you can do but in this case you are out of luck.