I’m a tolorant person. In fact, the only thing I really can’t stand is a blatant disregard for others. Second-hand smoke, is a nemesis of mine. You all might remember the great move out last January after the apartment next to me had made our shared wall yellow with the smoke coming through. I had a sinus infection for 6 months they attributed to ‘environmental’ factors. Luckily, I was able to get out of my lease, (mainly for the reason that along with shoddy building construction, they ‘forgot’ to shovel and do any snow maintenance,) which meant I spent the Christmas holiday trapped in my place and very, very, angry. I moved in here happy and gleeful, for the first 9 months.
You know what I hate? Being THAT person. You know the one I’m talking about: who complains and everyone else views it as silly. When it comes to second-hand smoke seeping into my building, I have no patience, especially given it’s been almost a month of the same problem, at a very new place. The difference in my building here is that it’s a GREEN building. Which means that it’s efficient, but the powers that be still decided smoking was alright. No one on my floor smoked until about a month ago. Then? It all went to hell. I woke up this morning to a sobbing preschooler who was coughing in-between her tears. She looked up at me and asked, “Why is my room so stinky?” The joy of working for yourself, also means we get to price outrageous health insurance plans, and we’re currently pricing. Should her cough continue, I’ll have a hefty bill to face. After waiting for 5 days for any sort of response from management, I called again this morning and was greeted with, “We don’t know what to do about it, when we do, we’ll let you know.” To which I replied with, “Do we need to consider staying somewhere else until this can be fixed,” and the manager curtly replied, “I have no idea.” She didn’t want to speak to me further and hung up. I should admit, that I’m the type of person who always tries to tell someone a positive before a negative, like this: ”I hope you had a fantastic Labor Day weekend! I’m sure with all the time off you haven’t gotten a chance to read the email I sent, but I thought I’d speak to you a bit about the smoking issue...” (And that’s about where the interruption occurred.)
My throat is killing me, but the guilt that my child’s developing lungs and sleep is being damaged by someone else’s selfish habit is what hurts the most. If you are a smoker, please consider those around you. Our hallway smells like a 1980′s bowling alley. We all have a right to breathe non-toxic air. There is nothing like coming home and having your chest hurt, eyes water and anger rise because someone else demands to get cancer while you smell the afterthought of their bad decisions. And so, I took to the blog. Because management, and the world doesn’t seem to get that while I pay $900 a month for a roof, I don’t get the luxury of respect while I fight for my child to breathe clean air, and not to add to the growing stress of finding decent insurance to cover both of us… before she has an asthma attack, or worse.
http://www.weallpaytheprice.com/
UGH. I am sorry you are dealing with this. I hate being around smoke. My mom smoked all through my childhood right up until I left home and I wonder what it did to my lungs. Scary stuff. I am hyper-vigilant about my kids being near second hand smoke. I hope the building management resolves this or I would (sadly) consider moving.
I’m not a smoker, never have been. But all this anti-smoking mentality is getting out of hand. Smoking is legal, and people should be allowed to smoke in their homes (as well as bars and restaurants in my opinion). It’s getting to a point were smoking will become impossible.
Do I like smoke? Not really. But there’s a lot of harmful thing that I don’t like but accept.
While I can appreciate your discomfort, and your daughters, I’m not sure what you expect the building management to do in tis case. You can’t change the rules after the fact. If smoking was such a big deal to you, you should have opted for a smoke free building rather than chance it.
Oh, I hear you, Kate! GAH! We had this problem at our apartment. I thought when we moved into our house, it would be a problem with our next door neighbors, but he either quit or doesn’t smoke outside our back door anymore. :-p Thank GOD.
I hope you get it resolved soon! It’s so sad that people have to suffer. I think the right to breathe clean air should trump the right to smoke whenever/wherever you want.