There are some whingebags in this world. You need to tell your neighbours they are keeping you up all night with the sound of them fucking. Think they would want that out in the open?

I smoke Phil and I agree that smoking should be banned in public places but your own home? What kind of a fucked up law is that!

If push comes to shove Pharma could always come to the rescue. Try one of their nicotine tablets. They may give you a heart attack but hey, there's a risk in every drug they manufacture.

Make a curry Phil, add loads of garlic and let the smell waft through your complex. If they don't like the smell of smoke they will probably complain of the smell of curry. A man has to eat.

Fuck em.

Fid

don't take that shit from those ppl!!

Philip,
I'd be seeking legal advice right about now. In my state the first consult is usually free and I've gotten tons of free advice that way and over the phone over the years.

Full Disclosure: I'm a non smoker. I hate smoking. I think it has no place in public places simply because I like to breath. I have mild asthma, grew up in a time, place and family when everyone smoked. I can tell you I don't miss the struggle to breath one bit. I really cannot tell you why my lungs are so sensitive to cigarette smoke. I wish they weren't, really. I've stopped going to Montreal, one of my favourite cities, because the Quebecois smoke so much I had trouble breathing on the sidewalk the last time I was there. That was quite a while ago, though, and it's Montreal after all, so I'll give it another shot sometime.

BUT, only this morning I was saying to Mr. Duck "I think everyone should get off Obama's case about his smoking. It's nobody's business but his and Michelle's. It's a private matter." I can see why you might want to limit it to certain areas in the public housing known as the White House, but I'm also quite sure you could design a comfortable place with appropriate air purifiers, etc. IF you wanted to do that with your time and energies instead of hassling someone about something that's a private matter.

Your neighbours have completely gone over the top. There's a HUGE difference between "I can't breath" and "I don't like the smell". Huge. I'm sorry, but passing by someone's door a couple of times a day in the hallway does NOT constitute a matter of public health. Sheesh. I can't stand "special" people. I assure you if it weren't smoking it would be something else because the real problem is their massive sense of entitlement. I'm pissed to see you bearing the brunt of it.

I've watched my best friend struggle for over 20 years to quit smoking. She can't. Her inability to quit when she wants to is just as real a problem as my asthma. Unlike my rude family, who would barge into my home and think nothing of lighting up, she and my other smoker friends have taught me it's possible to smoke on the porch. My smoking friends are the soul of courtesy. They are careful to control their butts, they head for the porch in January, etc. I usually go out with them to continue the conversation. The smoke dissipates quickly in the outside air. The problems I have with my smoking family members isn't smoking: it's rudeness and their sense entitlement (there's that phrase again).

Somebody should cut off your neighbours' delicate little noses. That would give them something else to focus on. I really don't understand why people get allover moralistic and cranked up about this stuff. My smoking best friend tells me the comments she gets when she's outside smoking. I was pretty shocked. But I'm sure you wouldn't be. There seems to be a serious lack of boundaries in this country, not to mention a corresponding lack of "there but for the grace of god" humility and the need to shut one's pie hole over things that are simply none of your business.

I hope you're able to work this out in your favour, Philip. Obviously there's no working on anything with your neighbours.

Meanwhile, I'm off to make my usual second payment on what I consider my FS research subscription service. PayPal makes it dead easy to do the right thing.

It's six degrees here in NH and we have no water today. Our pipes froze. My poor plumber groaned when I called because our house is on stilts and he just hates crawling around down there. I'm going out in a bit to hang a hair dryer down into the bulkhead space. That usually works. Or we can wait till April. That'll work.
Sherry

I'm sorry these people are being so unreasonable. Perhaps you could remind your landlord that you've been a regular rent paying good tenant for 6 years and ask him if he really wants to loose a good tenant over something like this. Crappy neighbors suck. Hang in there. But then maybe you can find a better place.

In California they actually show tv ads of little babies sitting in an apartment and say something to the effect that second hand smoke travels threw the vents and kills babies in another apartment. Nothing like fearmongering, But yet when the state needs more money they place another tax on cigerettes and makes the smokers pay for it.

It seems to me that if your neighbors have such a problem with smoking they would have smelled it when the were inspecting the apartment to rent it. They should be the one told to move.

I read this essay 15 years ago in Critical Thinking about those old ads on TV about littering, with the old Native American guy who sees someone throw a wrapper out of his car while he's driving by, and then the Indian guy looks at the camera and a tear comes out of his eye. The essay went on to say that pollution is NOT primarily caused by small-time folks, but huge industries which are always getting away with having fewer and fewer regulations on their waste disposal, and that Native Americans are NOT getting their lands destroyed by small-time folks either. They lose their lands when they become dumping grounds for industry. So, manipulative campaigns are devised to divert out attention from the primary issues and focus it on largely irrelevant ones. I see this exact technique used in the same way when they blame smokers for everything. It's such a small, tiny thing, is my point, and in the meantime there are much more serious pollutants seeping into our bodies.

Philip,

I am very grateful to your site for all its investigative blogging. I would love to contribute, but unfortunately am but a poor student and do not own a credit card.

Thank you for all your hard work. If there is any other way I can help, please tell me.

Thank you,
Emily.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

Lately I'm reading and listening to some stories that amazes me so much that I don't know what to say.
Last week I've watched on DeutscheW that Germans are no longer used to children due to decline of birth rate and increase of life expectancy.
Children are not supposed to make noises.
Now this.
We cannot smoke in our houses.
I'll smoke one cigarette and think about it all.
Perhaps we should create a community to smokers.
I'm sad because my plan of creating a psychiatry dissident community is no longer possible.
Perhaps creating divided spaces: "smokers" and "no smokers" ...
Sorry.
That was not funny.
I lost my sense of humor!
:(

Of course Philip is not in a good mood. But after reading what Emily wrote I believe he will find a good reason for a smile.

I feel ya man. I spent a few weeks in Vancouver BC and almost lost my mind looking for a place to smoke in that smoke-free city, I mean it completely ruled my scheduling day. Now they're talking about doing that in Austin, where we have a two-dollar per pack sin tax on ciggies. I can't think that far ahead, can't think passed my next pack of smokes since my Angelbait got feline diabetes I use my discretionary twenties to pay for her food and insulin and white knuckle it in between paychecks.

I hate this aspect of the nanny state, but hate supporting the tobacco industry more. Yes, somethings gotta give, but I want to be the one making these decisions.

Can't help with donating, 1,000 a month anti-viral kicking my you know what, but with these neighbors, have you tried "OUST" sprayed around the door and under the door? They will probably hate the smell of that more, use if often, many times a day so that it builds up in the hallway, how can they complain of you keeping your place smelling what you consider "nice and homey"? :)

I sympathize, as a fellow smoker. When I lived in Silicon Valley (up until about six years ago), it was brutal. Same deal, 20 feet from any public entrance. One afternoon I was sitting on a bench downtown with my cigarette, and some patron of a cafe (with storefront windows and a closed door, therefore entirely unable to smell the smoke) came outside and reminded me of the distance requirement. I asked if she'd like to escort me to the middle of the roadway. She went back inside.

The gall of some people. It's not so bad here in Western Mass, where there are more smokers and fewer Whole Foods, but I'll still get the fake cough from people passing me on the street, the dirty looks, etc. I am frequently tempted to pull my father's favorite line and offer to put my filter out on their foreheads.

Yes, it's a vice. Yes, it's unhealthy. But I am unaware of any studies shown to conclusively separate health problems due to second hand smoke from that due to the countless other pollutants in the air (and water and soil and everything). Regardless, someone has pointed out the cig tax (which has brought my Marb Reds to about $6.80 here), which can be indiscriminately raised with little fuss because nobody minds punishing us degenerates. I'd like to see a similarly disproportionate tax on alcohol. I know of nobody who has been charged with DU-nicotine, nor any accidents caused by cigarette usage.

Your neighbors probably can't smell the smoke half the time, they just convince themselves they do because they are bitter and bored. Cook fish for dinner. Every night.

My suggestion (at least during "the season") is hang a huge fragrant wreath on the outside of your door. There is no way in hell they would be able to smell cig smoke over that! And maybe for the off-season, a few of those extremely strong car tree fresheners (the kind that make you gag within the confines of a car)tacked to the top of the door jamb?

But then, as Sherry said, if it weren't this it would probably be something else. You're dealing with assholes, there's no pleasing them.

PS I'm a smoker too and often worry when management has to enter my apartment for whatever reason.

thanks for all the supportive comments. god only knows where this will all end up. but i do appreciate the support. has it really come to this over smoking legal products in this country? oddly enough it has. so why is it that marijuana which is illegal is supported and tobacco isn't?

Jordan said: "I'd like to see a similarly disproportionate tax on alcohol. I know of nobody who has been charged with DU-nicotine, nor any accidents caused by cigarette usage." AMEN.

I like the curry idea best. By the way, my friend and her husband both smoke like crazy but I never smell it when I visit them--although I admit I am smokey smelling when I get home and have to wash my hair and clothes (no big deal).

I recently found out they have an air purifier. Which actually works, apparently.

I'm wondering what would happen if you got an air purifier, started making LOTS of curry, cabbage dishes, limburger cheese dishes, etc. and smilingly announced you've quit smoking. If you were able to mask the smell, how the heck could anyone know you smoke if they're not in your house? Do they go through your trash?

I agree, it's weird and unnecessary to select one group out of the crowd. It always amazes me that beer is legal and grass is not. I've never seen anyone in my life get belligerant and start a fight when they were stoned. Quite the opposite.

Sherry