The Stench of a Neighbor

It's summer again, the windows are open and that means the stench of a neighbor is back.

I may be overreacting a little bit to this situation but it is an issue. We have a neighbor living in a nearby second floor apartment who smokes incessantly. I'm sympathetic to the pandemic induced stress we have all been living under and the possible of a loss of a job or perhaps working from home. I am an ex-smoker myself (40 some years ago) and can appreciate the cravings.

However, my problem with this situation is the wafting smoke that travels through the neighborhood and it's very peculiar and distinctive smell. This person can obviously not smoke in the apartment and either sits on the second floor porch to puff at multiple cigarettes at a time or sits in the backyard doing the same thing. The stench of that smoke enters our home through the backyard screen door or the open kitchen windows and our whole first floor stinks. The same thing happens in the front of the house when the person smokes on the front porch. I like to sit on our porch and read but the smoke drives me inside which isn't always a help because again the smoke comes through open windows. Even our front bedroom stinks from the smoke when the person is smoking on their front porch.

I've brought it up with other neighbors and they feel the same way. Their quality of life has been negatively affected by this person's obvious nicotine addiction. I've been considering bringing up the subject with the smoker and beginning the conversation by asking what kind of cigarette was being smoked and of course I was an ex-smoker who didn't recognize that particular smell. I could then go on and say that every time one of those cigarettes is lit we can smell that distinctive odor throughout our home since we've opened our windows for the summer.

This became a noticeable issue last summer. I think the person smoked all along but not to the noticeable amount that began since the pandemic took hold and the person was home all the time. The smell went away last fall when we closed the windows but I did see the smoker all winter long huddled in the backyard or on that porch smoking one cigarette after another. Very sad and pathetic.

We have a couple of air purifiers that we got for the pandemic but they are used more often now in the rooms where the neighbor's smoke is entering our home. I've also been researching other ways to control outdoor smoker odor that may enter a home.