De-smoking
Posted on:: January 17th, 2005
My home office shares a wall with a guy who smokes a whole lot of cigs. Particles are getting through even though the rooms are sealed. My room smells faintly of smoke and my throat is scratchy. He’s not going to stop, and it’s fine during the months when we open our windows. Any suggestions for aggregating, deflecting or dispersing the particles?
Categories: Uncategorized dw
It’s almost certainly to do with where his air leaves his house and yours comes in. One solution is to get a BlueAir — not cheap (a few hundred with about $50 in non-disposable cartridges needing to be swapped every six months), but it’ll probably take care of it in that room.
I’d also look into the filtration system for your home. If the airtake is in the wrong spot, you can’t do much about it, but you could insert a HEPA filter at reasonably large expense.
However, a HEPA filter will remove micro-particulants, which are increasingly seen as one of the largest detriments after pesticide residue of the modern (uh, 1600s and on) age.
Micro-particulants can cause all manner of lung problems, some of them subtle, and all of which lead to longer, nastier colds, among other worse complications. So a small investment in a house or room HEPA filter could restore productive days to your life (= $) or reduce medical expense (= no negative $).
I remember you seem to get a lot of colds, and they linger, and this might be one way to help resist from the inside out.
Buy the guy a window fan.
Seriously, my wife smokes, but you never smell smoke in my house. She smokes only in her office, which has a $30 window fan that removes the smoke.
You’re probably sharing more than a wall with the guy.
Good luck.
you have any plants in your room? they are quite good at cleaning air
There was a guy in college who’d play a tape of bagpipe music to counter (attack) loud music of other flavors nearby. Along these same “fighting fire with gasoline” lines, you might employ the help of a skunk.
I regret that I have no useful suggestions.
Pull a preemptive strike on the smoker’s space with plans in mind to have him hold a democratic election in the near future to include a referendum on non-smoking??
nothing has power; except what you give it.
Shoot him.
How serious do you want to get about it? Maybe ripping out your side of the wall down to the bare studs, putting in a firm insulation and then a new vapor barrier would help. Might even involve the ceiling as well, I’m sorry to say.
And as someone else said above, perhaps you’re sharing more than a wall. Is there a cold air return or duct on the same wall? It probably needs to be wrapped somehow, building code permitting. Could be done if you were ripping the wall to the studs. Good luck!
David, you can’t argue with tens of thousands of cabbies. I always get, “That was the passenger before you.”
Royal Pine
David, buy a negative ion generator for your office. It will clear the air of the smoke particles, and make you feel better to boot.
You will see a certain amount of blather about how miraculous/hoaky negative ion generators are. Just do it.
I should note that 25 years ago, when I tried a negative ion generator in my office, my video terminal (this was before PCs) acted a little funny, and I had to remove the generator. I have no idea if modern PCs would be affected.
James Governor wrote: “you have any plants in your room? they are quite good at cleaning air”
Unfortunately, this is not true. When you see the “NASA says plants clean air” tags on plants that’s because of a single study with poor methodology conducted in the early 90s that the EPA (under Clinton, no less) disclaimed the validity of, and has never been expanded nor repeated.
I got in touch with people in the interior plant industry and read a number of studies referred to on some fairly self-serving sites about plants cleaning the air. They all wind up referring back to that single tiny NASA study.
It’s basically one of these taser-like situations: hey, the science proves it! What science? All these studies! There are just a few studies, and they don’t prove it. Hey, go ask the scientists about it, then! What?
David, I googled around to see if I could find an objective appraisal of air filtering systems that would counter sidestream smoke, by the only sites I found were also selling such devices.
The medical literature certainly doesn’t have studies that address a situation such as yours, but I believe the symptoms you report.
As far as you buying some filtering system, this seems as if you would have to spend an inordinate amount of money ($500 plus cost of replacement filters) to remedy a problem that could be fixed better with some cooperation from your neighbor. By all rights, he should share in the cost if he’s not willing to compromise on his behavior. At least he should chip in for your heating bill if you need to periodically flush the stinky air with some nice fresh 10 degree January air.
Plus, don’t misunderestimate [sic] the salubrious effects of kvetching:
http://health.discovery.com/centers/womens/kvetch/kvetching_health.html
If his smoke is being forced through the wall into your room, it sounds as if the air pressure in his space is higher than in yours. Does he have a heat pump, or some similar forced-air source, while you lack one? Or does your place and his share a common attic, perhaps one with a flimsy partition between the spaces, and what you’re getting is a bare whiff of the blue smoke that fills that area?
Try one of those Ionic Breeze or IonicPro air purifiers/ionizers. They do a wonderful job cleaning up our 1400 sq foot condo after fireplace usage (when it results in my smoking up the place).
I would begin by procuring a smokeless ashtray, if you are unable to goad the smoker outdoors to blow the noxious fumes . Air purifiers and smoke-less ashtrays help a bit, but are not the “catch-all” answer. Best of luck…
RoryKiller
I would recommend a combination of a Type III Force Field with an underwater breating device. You can find some preliminary information on both here:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.08/pwr_superpower.html?pg=2&topic=&topic_set=
For technical specifics, you will probably have better luck on the newsgroups or via secret messages encoded in most classified ads.
I do have similar situation with teh smoke from my neighbors house whom I share a wall with. I spent thousands of dollars of changing filters and buying air purifiers but nothing helped. I am always sick while in the house:itching, coughing, burning and sneezing as long as I am in the house.
I read all the responses to David’ problem with smokes in his house and there is one which makes sense.If his smoke is being forced through the wall into your room, it sounds as if the air pressure in his space is higher than in yours. Does he have a heat pump, or some similar forced-air source, while you lack one? Or does your place and his share a common attic, perhaps one with a flimsy partition between the spaces, and what you’re getting is a bare whiff of the blue smoke that fills that area?
Does any one knows how to solve this problem?
Thanks
is the one which
there are many credable sources that show spider plants clean the air. but it depends what kind of cleaning u expect. if ur leaving the windows shut all the itme, it’ll work. if ur expecting to remove smoke, it wont! an activeated corbon filter should do the job there.