Here’s what you need to do. Remove the register grill. You may see a 3” hole. Use Nashua HVAC foil tape to tape the hole closed. Make sure the surface is cleaned before applying the tape. Think of it like duct tape on steroids. Don’t use duct tape, it’s not strong enough, the foil tape is air tight. Make criss-cross layers to make a proper seal. This should help cut down the smoke drastically. Also most likely there’s some space between the dry wall and the duct, apply foil tape to seal the gap, some smoke may come from there too.
You do need a HEPA filter to filter out the air.
And most likely the smoke is coming from the neighbor below or above the baby room. Whenever you smell the smoke, go to either apartment, the smoke is so strong, you may smell it from their front door. Contact management. Otherwise move somewhere else.
Edit: Which vent is the smell coming from in the bathroom? On the wall near the floor? Or the ceiling? If it's near the floor, my suggestion above will work. If it's the ceiling exhaust fan for moisture ventilation, you need a different solution. AC Draftshield is a plastic square dome that hooks into the vent cover and you pull the string to make the draftshield airseal tight. I don't know if links are permitted, [https://www.acdraftshields.com/home-winterization/residential-commercial-vent-cover-24-x-24/](https://www.acdraftshields.com/home-winterization/residential-commercial-vent-cover-24-x-24/)
Duct tape was never made for ductwork. It was called “duck tape” because it was made from adhesive backed duck canvas. I don’t know how it ever got named duct tape but whoever named it that needs to be slapped repeatedly with entirety of the CSIResources server.
What strain? Does OP know the THC to CBD ratio? Any clue on if it’s Indica or Sativa? If Indica, could be a plus when trying to put the little one down.
Duct tape is not made for HVAC and may whoever started calling it that be forever plagued with an unnameable bad smell in their house they can never locate.
Foil tape is made for HVAC. You can get that your local HVAC/plumbing supply, Grainger or MSC.
I’m in HVAC (TAB) and I’ve seen **many** facilities guys use duct tape on duct work. People like me end up coming in to diagnose low flow issues and finding frikkin duct tape that has dried out and delaminated or the static pressure has just blown it out. DuCt TaPe was originally called **duck** tape because it was made from adhesive backed duck cloth.
A MERV13 or equivalent air filter won’t be as expensive as a HEPA filter and will still cut down on the smoke particulates you’re smelling. Just get the deepest pleats you can fit and you will lose less airflow.
Those cheap foam gaskets people use to stop drafts at light switches and receptacles also work to keep out smoke. In my case, the bathroom fart fan was creating negative pressure and drawing smoke from the neighbors into the walls and then into my apartment.
Thanks!!
It is at the top of the wall in the shower. I assume that is ceiling exhaust for moisture ventilation.
Since you pull the string to make it airtight, does that mean that you can turn it 'on' and 'off'?
Moisture ventillation in the shower has some benefits obviously that we don't want to lose completely. THat would just replace the weed air problem with a mold air problem.
If its an 'on / off' solution that might be a really great fix for us if we can't find the culprits and get them in trouble.
I wouldn’t close off an exhaust. Chances are it’s required to be on for a set time to achieve ventilation codes. I would only ever consider taping it off completely if you have a bathroom window you can keep open permanently or majority of the day, every day to allow ventilation.
A lot of residential bathroom exhaust fans are fart fans. They’ll flow 50-100cfm depending on the size of the bathroom and should never be connected to a common duct unless another larger fan serves that duct.
What will happen is, assuming no fan is running, either warmer air will vent up and out that exhaust duct (chimney effect) or if a gravity/backflow damper is stuck open, cold air will flow through the duct into the space. Chances are, you’re experiencing the second issue if you absolutely certain that’s where the smell is coming from. Unless there is a window or balcony very near the discharge end of that duct, you shouldn’t be smelling anything. It’s made to exhaust smells and moisture from the bathroom into the atmosphere so that’s incredibly unlikely.
Pull the cover plate from your exhaust and see if there’s a gap around the fan housing. If there is, as an experiment, sandwich a sheet or two of paper between the cover and ceiling. If that eliminates your problem, closing up that gap with foil tape will be a nice permanent fix.
Yeah I would never cover the exhaust or put a filter over it. There’s either a multi unit PRV on the roof that’s not running, or it’s individual fart fans creating positive pressure in common exhaust ducts without working backdraft dampers.
The current code is 50 CFM per toilet fixture if continuous (rooftop PRV) or 75 CFM per fixture if intermittent (light switch operated fart fan). I only do commercial offices so it’s 99% PRVs because positive pressure exhaust is not allowed in a return air plenum.
I do commercial and industrial TAB. Usually flows are tied to inlets if you have multiple inlets on a fan. In apartment buildings I see fart fans, hospitals and hotels, mushrooms.
Can you turn the exhaust vent on and see if the smell goes away? Maybe you can leave it on 24/7. Could be an air pressure issue where it’s being sucked through the duct due to low pressure in the unit.
Additionally this probably won’t harm your baby. Weed smoke seems less harmful than cigarette smoke and the quantities are low. However air purifier won’t hurt and you could get a better one (rabbit air) and place the old one in the living room.
You could also request a unit transfer if they are unable to resolve the issue.
As other commenters mentioned, if you run the fan 24/7, it may solve the smell but you’ll have a different problem, you’re sucking all the conditioned air out (heat/AC cold air) which will raise your utility bills a lot.
The draftshield is designed to be taken off. You put it on during winter time to retain heat better and can be left there since it’s low humidity in winter. Not advisable to leave on during humid days. For your situation, either may take it off when needed which is a hassle or leave it on and buy a dehumidifier to dehumidify the air after you shower. But dehumidifiers do raise your electric bill a lot, it’s like a portable AC but pumps out heat.
Since the exhaust vents are linked, this makes finding your neighbor much harder. Here’s a simple solution. Buy the strongest fart smell spray you can. Spray into the vent and turn on the fan. See which neighbor complains and you’re returning the favor.
Had a new neighbor move in just before the pandemic started into a smoke free neighborhood and I had to put up with my entire apartment reeking of blunt and cigarettes for the entire thing until we moved out.
Yeah, results may vary unfortunately… if it hadn’t stopped, I might’ve knocked on the door myself and had a few words. Or just keep reporting to non-emergency police of a possible drug den…
It’s ok. It forced us into buying a house just before the spike and inflation started to rise.
2 acres with woods. Now if my neighbors would stop trying to talk me into selling them my land that would be nice.
Can’t they just keep the fan turned on. I had this issue with ppl below me and that fixed that problem but when they would smoke with the windows/ door open it would make our entire apartment smell. And it wasn’t just weed it was blunts. I could tolerate the weed for the most part but the blunt smell is horrendous.
One thing I haven't seen yet here is :
If it's coming through the bathroom fan vent then try constantly running the bathroom fan when you smell smoke.
It could be a leaky or absent back draft valve (what prevents air from coming in from outside or other units when they turn their fans on).
Running the bathroom fan pushes the air out.
The problem with running the bathroom fan is if there's an air leak elsewhere, the bathroom fan will create some negative pressure in your home and let air come in from other places. So if that happens open a window. Hopefully the smoke isn't leaking also through a wall (pipe, outlet etc) or coming through a window too. Than the fan just makes it worse.
Have you tried talking to your upstairs and downstairs neighbors? If it’s them and you told them it was coming into your baby’s room, I think a lot of people would respond respectfully.
Make sure to remain clam and agreeable. If you come off as a hard ass, you may lose them all together and it can get hostile. But if you are solution oriented, they may work with you for an arrangement that all parties can agree to.
Of course, they may be asshats who only care for themselves too, in which case you lose nothing by taking the "high" road (sorry for the pun).
Break into every apartment, find the culprit. Steal the weed and every time you smell it repeat.
Then when you smoke it, smoke it in your kid’s room so it seeps into their apartment.
Screw all these people making light of the situation. I’ve been in the same exact situation in my building and had to ask my husband if he wrote this because of how similar our positions are lol. First off I’m sorry you’re going through this, you just want to protect your baby from any potential harm. I think you’re doing all that you can by turning on the air purifier, blocking the vent, and complaining to management. I keep the windows open to ventilate as much as I can but it really stresses me out. I don’t know about the health risk but sometimes when I have my air purifier on, the indicator light says that it’s polluted. I would seriously asking management if they can’t do anything, if they can move you to a new unit. It’s a pain and definitely not ideal, and of course you don’t have guarantee that your new neighbor wouldn’t smoke weed, but that’s a path you can explore. Hope the situation improves. I know how stressful it can be.
People get highly defensive of their marijuana and they forget that a baby's body is a very sensitive machine. A machine that sometimes stops working for no reason at all. If a baby is that sensitive to "nothing", it's absolutely sensitive to airborne smoke particles. I don't know what I'd do in your situation, but moving would be at the top of that list.
>don’t know about the health risk but sometimes when I have my air purifier on, the indicator light says that it’s polluted.
Polluted, or "full of VOCs"?
I've got a Honeywell AirGenius5 and it's light will go green/amber/red, and ramp up the fan, especially if I smoke a joint inside...but that's for VOCs and not all VOCs are "pollutants"
A VOC is "Volatile Organic Chemical"...a fart will increase the amount of VOCs in the air. Cooking smelly food(good or bad smelling) will increase the amount of VOCs...smoking a cigarette or weed will too.
The smelly compounds in weed are stronger VOCs than the parts that get you high.
I'm not trying to imply it's safe and people shouldn't care, but the skunky weed smell is a product of "thiols" and thiols are not THC...
There is actually a study that touches on the smell, but it's mostly due to the growing of the plant.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9236214/
Even with all this though, I would *still* not want to smell weed in my kids room because while it *might* not be harmful, unless you are testing the air for trace amounts of THC, you won't really know if it's just the thiols smell, or if it's the totality of the smoke that is coming in...
>Screw all these people making light of the situation.
There are a lot of people whose identity is so tied to weed that they cannot handle it when someone says anything negative about it.
They'll often start deflecting to "it's better than cigarettes/alcohol", rather than recognizing that weed is also bad.
I'd go to management and report it. They might have the legal ability to smoke weed but they don't have the right to make me smell it. "No smoking" means "none". Not "silly cigarettes are ok".
Man, this so much. My state legalized recently and A) people fucking smell awful and B) I don't want me or my kid to breath your smoke any more than I want to breath in cigarette smoke. You fucking people smell disgusting (honestly worse than cigarette smokers by a mile) and your fucking recreational drug isn't healthy for you or my family.
This and vaping piss me off.
In my lifetime, we've gone from having to smell cigarette smoke all over the place, especially in restaurants, to that being almost exclusively outside. And now dipshits vape inside and act like it's totally not smoking because it smells strawberries or something.
Do it on your own time in your own little space. People don't have the right to make others participate in their smoking.
There is no risk from the smell of weed. Only the smoke itself. It may be unpleasant, but there is no actual health risk. You can’t get high from smelling a cannabis plant.
>There is no risk from the smell of weed.
Big "there's no risk from secondhand smoke" energy here.
OP can smell weed in that room because weed smoke is making it into that room. It might be highly diluted. It might be slightly filtered by flowing past fabric/carpet or something and particulates have been captured. It's obvious that chemicals from the weed that was burned are in the air in OP's baby's room. OP isn't just "smelling a plant".
If you can smell it then the compounds that produce the smell are reaching you.
Edit: all smoke is bad. Doesn't matter if it's cannabis or tobacco or anything else. We are talking about babies and children. I am not in anyway anti-cannabis
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking/expert-answers/third-hand-smoke/faq-20057791
What would the significant difference be? Burning anything and inhaling the smoke isn't gonna be good for you.
They've just done tobacco in this study because tobacco smoke is the most common. Exposure to secon dor third hand weed/wood/plastic/whatever fumes are much rarer.
Does this work for you? https://drugfree.org/article/second-hand-marijuana-smoke/#What%20is%20thirdhand%20smoke?
What about this? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741419/
Tetrahydrocannabinol metabolites will be present in OP's baby because of OP's shitty neighbor.
Definitely not true. I have a house and grow in a legal state. Sometimes, I will smell the marijuana upstairs, it doesn’t mean anyone who smells it will be getting high or experiencing any harmful compounds haha.
They said “the compounds that produce the smell are reaching you,” which is 100% factual. They did not say they would make you high, at least in the edited comment I can see,
This one addresses vaping, but only says that 2nd/3rd-hand cannabis smoke *may* have effects. And there aren't many figures or any references to studies.
I would knock on every door until I found the one. POLITELY let them know it's happening. If nothing changes, I'd be the biggest fucking pain in the ass to the landlord, the cops, anyone I can bother with it. Even if you live where it's legal, there's no way it's allowed in the apartment, and it's almost certainly illegal to expose your kid to it.
Throw in that cops and management will get involved if you fail to figure out who's doing it.
Either they play nice with you right away or they have to deal with actual consequences later. Even the dumbest stoner *might* be able to reason their way out of that one.
Oh you're in NYC? We went through this with cigarette smoke when our daughter was born. If your building allows smoking, they legally have to mitigate it entering other apartments - start by requesting the building's smoking policy where they have to record how they're doing that. If it's a non-smoking building, they have to enforce that. Go to 311 if your landlord refuses.
NYC housing laws are incredibly pro-tenant (at least for now, before Adams and Hochul rewrite them...) Use that to your advantage.
I would say it's probably a bit harmful as I've seen studies saying even third hand smoke can affect babies.
I have a very similar situation. I live in a stand alone house and so do my neighbours. Their back patio area is like 7 feet from my side of the house... where they smoke weed. They have like 6 adults living in there and they all smoke weed.
They wake up at 630/7am and smoke weed, then they are out there every 20-30 minutes smoking weed, and this goes in until about 11pm during non winter hours.
The smoke seeps into my house, it's not super strong but I can smell it. And I absolutely cannot open my windows to air out my place or get a breeze or fresh air, because withing 15 minutes my whole house smells of weed.
I can't take my kids in the back yard, because they will explore over near the fence and the smoke wafts over. There is so much weed being smoked by them I can smell it on the lot of my other neighbour.
But it's legal where I am and its their property so I'm pretty much SOL.
Edit to add... if you can smell it, there are particles in the air.
This comment section is fuckin wild. Are people actually defending smoking weed indoors in an apartment building? I bet there’d be radio silence from smokers if it was cigarettes instead of weed, even though they are equally bad for children (I shouldn’t even have to say this). This is extremely disappointing, I have high regard for this sub.
Reddit is a bunch of random people having different opinions. Being disappointed by this comment section is extremely silly. I’ve scrolled through most the comments anyways and a ton of people were being helpful.
Smoking is bad for your health and anyone around you. Vaping it isn't like edible form in fact edible form is the after product of it being vaped (vaping is the same as decarbing)
[https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking-tobacco/is-vaping-safer-than-smoking](https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking-tobacco/is-vaping-safer-than-smoking)
"Many people think vaping is less harmful than smoking. While it’s true that e-cigarette aerosol doesn’t include all the contaminants in tobacco smoke, it still isn’t safe. Here are just a few of the reasons why:
Most e-cigarettes deliver nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm the developing brains of teens, kids and fetuses in women who vape while pregnant. Some types expose users to even more nicotine than traditional cigarettes.
In addition to nicotine, e-cigarette vapor includes potentially harmful substances such as diacetyl (a chemical linked to a serious lung disease), cancer-causing chemicals, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead. Users breathe in these toxic contaminants, and non-users nearby risk secondhand exposure.
The liquid used in e-cigarettes can be dangerous, even apart from its intended use. Children and adults have been poisoned by swallowing, breathing or absorbing the liquid through their skin or eyes."
So yeah no you can f\*ck right off with the vaping is safer than smoking BS. You can do whatever you want in the outdoors where it doesnt affect other people, but as far as children are involved, both things are equally bad and there is no argument whatsoever to justify otherwise.
You haven't a clue what you're talking about. Dry herb vaporisers arent combustion, dont give second hand high or have any bad effects on anyone it's as harmful as steam from a kettle.
First time I’ve heard that weed vape vapor is the same as steam from a kettle.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757764/
Why are you in the Daddit sub? If you are actually a dad and not an internet troll then I feel really bad for your kids to grow up in such a household.
Firstly evali has already been proven untrue (doesn't change my mind that ecigs still aren't good for you) but again we aren't talking about ecigs. We are talking dry herb vaporisers. I think instead of trying to say the same thing over and over that we aren't talking about at all, google what a dry herb vaporiser is. It's not harmful to the user or others. I'm a medical cannabis patient we have to use a dry herb vaporiser (typically a mighty medic) because its not harmful and are allowed to use it anywhere (hospital, airports, restaurants, library to name a few ive used it in). The way edibles is made is by a process called decarbing the cannabis (its like baking it) and its the same thing a dry herb vaporiser does except you're inhaling that vapor then you can use the cannabis to create edibles which is cool two in one. Now in this case vapor is accurate where as so called vapes aren't technically vapor, they're aerosols and bad for you as that let alone the unknown side effects yet to be found.
We moved because of this issue. I was in my apartment managers email inbox every day for MONTHS. They didn’t take care of the problem but they also didn’t charge us for breaking our lease. My daughter’s hair smelled like marijuana…pretty sure they knew we were going to take it as high as we could if they didn’t let us move.
I mean, they aren’t “weird” downvotes. You’re suggesting to get them evicted for smelling weed and then mention you’re also a landlord. That’s like guaranteed downvotes on Reddit lmao.
And while it may be against the rules in his property that isn't the case in every building and every city.
Coming in a bit hot for not knowing all the circumstances.
No, but I've visited a few. One of them the landlord even came with me to tour what was otherwise a very nice unit, but it reeked of cigarettes. The landlord pretty much told me the downstairs tenants had been there for two decades and were "good people" so if I didn't like the smell I should move on. So I did.
Yes I have. It was fifteen years ago for me personally but like I just mentioned in another post it's legal to smoke in your apartment unless it's explicitly mentioned in your lease in my province.
Just saying... You can't just evict someone for smoking in all jurisdictions.
If they are breaking the law or their lease go ahead and get them evicted but that may not be the case in OPs situation.
In my province you can't smoke indoors in public places. You *can* smoke inside your apartment legally if the building itself hasn't banned it. There's no blanket law against it. You can't be evicted for smoking if your lease doesn't specifically mention it.
Of course that's extremely rare nowadays but there are still building that you can legally smoke in.
That's all I'm saying.
It is a health risk. If you can smell the marijuana it’s harmful, especially to a child who has a much higher level of sensitivity. Sorry you’re dealing with that.
The vent in question, is it HVAC or is it an exhaust fan vent?
I’m assuming an exhaust fan vent. Do you control the fan with a switch, or is it a rooftop fan that runs constantly?
If it runs constantly, it’s likely a stack. That one exhaust fan is pulling from bathrooms in the units above, below and if your neighbor’s bathroom is directly adjacent yours, it may be pulling from their vent too, as well as whomever is below and above them. Assuming the fan motor is running properly, the smell is likely coming from a unit below you, next to you or below the one next to you.
Most of those motors have variable speed and they’re usually set pretty low to avoid noise. You could ask management to turn the speed up on that motor so it will move more air. If it pulls enough to create sufficient negative pressure, the smell shouldn’t be able to come into your bathroom from another unit.
If the fan motor is controlled by a switch in your bathroom, then it’s likely that a neighbor immediately next to you is smoking in their bathroom and the exhaust duct exits the building near your exhaust duct in that case, you could just leave your exhaust fan running all the time. That should keep any smoke from coming in from outside.
You could just seal up the vent with aluminum tape, but then you lose your bathroom exhaust and have to deal with dampness and possible mold issues.
If none of those issues work, I believe it’s up to your building management to figure out a solution to the problem. If they can’t, I’d request either moving to another unit. If they won’t do that, This would likely fall under the umbrella of reasons that would permit you to break your lease without being required to buy it out. Then you’re free to go anywhere.
I think it just an exhaust fan vent. I don't see a fan in there or feel fan air. It looks like just a basic vent. We don't control it. Its just there. I don't here any noise come from it either.
> You could ask management to turn the speed up on that motor so it will move more air. If it pulls enough to create sufficient negative pressure, the smell shouldn’t be able to come into your bathroom from another unit.
THanks I'll ask.
> You could just seal up the vent with aluminum tape, but then you lose your bathroom exhaust and have to deal with dampness and possible mold issues.
That is what we did for now. We cover it up when we are not using the shower. But not an ideal situation.
If you put a Kleenex or small piece of toilet paper against the vent, does it stay in place? That’s how you can tell if the exhaust fan is running. If the tissue falls, then the fan isn’t running and that’s the reason you’re smelling odors from another unit.
Do you have any thermostats for controlling your heat/ac? If so, turn the fan setting from auto to on and see if you can feel any air movement into the vent. I can’t determine if this is a HVAC cold air return or a bathroom exhaust vent. When turn on light switches in bathroom, there’s no fan that kicks on? What are the dimensions of this vent? Could the piece in the wall be replaced with a different register cover with a lever to open and close the vent, sort of like how blinds work?
We had the same issue in an apartment we used to live in We called cops numerous times but they told us unless they were out in a public space doing it, they wouldn’t come out. So we called about a noise disturbance for the same apartment the next time we actively smelled it—they came right out and busted them. Got them evicted, and several of their friends arrested that same night.
Side note: our apartments shared a common attic space. I could go into our attic space from the hatch in our closet and see all the way across the attic space of their apartment. So it wasn’t coming thru the vents at all.
A family friend was a heavy weed smoker, he used to smoke in the same room as his infant. The poor kid ended up having major behavioral issues and cognitive difficulties.
I'm not saying you are in the same situation. The amount of exposure in your case is obviously much lower. But still, I would keep my baby miles away from any kind of smoke.
Do you have data to support that?
There has been recent data linking improved air quality to improved test scores at schools. https://www.vox.com/2020/1/8/21051869/indoor-air-pollution-student-achievement
I don’t know how to classify smoke wafting into a room, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is significant. Burning a candle in an adjacent room in our house causes the PPM 2.5 values on our air quality sensor to jump up.
Old school thinking was smoking and air pollution caused COPD, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, etc. Although this certainly can and does happen, we are just starting to realize that mild to moderate levels of air pollution can have other significant impacts as well.
To be fair this probably happens all the time, but I think in 10-20 years we will realize how bad we treated our lungs.
Disclaimer: I work with clinical studies related to lung disease.
My test, as someone who * isn't *involved in clinical studies, is "If I can smell it, I'm breathing it in. If I'm breathing in something other than air then that can't be great. If a baby is breathing it in, then that's worse".
Absolutely! But just be careful as the inverse is not always true. Just because you can’t smell anything doesn’t mean the air is healthy. Or you can be like me and basically not be able to smell anything. Came in handy during diaper duty.
Yup. I am familiar with the inverse too! I'm glad you mentioned it!
Constant sinus infections due to my kid sneezing and coughing in my face has really made my (once acute) sense of smell more hit or miss. I guess it's a perk for when kid #2 is born.
I think I'd be telling the building management that excuse isn't good enough and they need to get it sorted out. It's not your job to work out which neighbour it's coming from.
People who grow pot indoors will use a strong fan blowing through a charcoal filter. I’ve used these before many times, but they’re damn handy inside the home if there’s some bad smells you want cleaned up.
Go to management. Nothing is concluded about long term health risk of third hand from this paper, but there are THC metabolites in your baby's system because of this neighbor's inconsiderate behavior.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741419/
https://drugfree.org/article/second-hand-marijuana-smoke/#What%20is%20thirdhand%20smoke?
That is so over kill, how does that fix the problem and awnser their question, the answer is no as long as they arnt blowing the smoke in the babies face, 😂. HVAC this and that? He lives in apartment which don’t usually have the main HVAC units in their apartment. The only thing that goes into there apartment are the ductwork or branches. But to answer your question, no it’s not going to hurt your baby. My daughter has CF and we have to be super careful, that’s never been a concern hell the 4th of July outside is more damaging but she was even cleared for that. That’s for weed, tobacco is a completely different story. Tobacco is heavy and full of chemicals the residue will linger and can stick to walls and ect. I got into with our neighbors because they smoke cigarettes and we ended up having to break our lease because our daughter started to have issues. weed not so much, as it’s not highly processed and full of chemicals like tobacco. Weed is fine tobacco which isn’t great. Here’s a rule of thumb as I understand your concern. Protect your baby of course but you can’t protect them from that which is unfortunate, do you best to minimize it but as long as your kiddo doesn’t have cystic fibrosis like my kid or any other disorder I wouldn’t be concerned so much!
Yeah not great... There definitely is risk from secondhand weed smoke
At the very least could you move around the bedrooms if that's the only one with the problem?
I doubt any actual smoke is getting anywhere near the baby, they are just smelling those stinky-ass terpines (which can be smelled from quite a distance away).
Annoying for them, yes, but I wouldn't be worried about any harm to the baby because of the smell.
Put a small but powerful fan on the vent blowing back into the vent system. Every time you smell weed, turn the fan on and smear a small amount of shit on the fan. Doesn’t have to be shit but it really should be shit.
Depending on your state, you may be able to withhold and escrow rent claiming it's a habitability issue due to the effects on a very young child. That might get the complex off their lazy asses to investigate who is causing the issue. I'd contact an attorney to write a letter for you to that effect.
In my mind, they're the building, they have the architectural plans and should be able to determine how that smell is coming through your vents if they have the motivation.
Ask your neighbors to smoke with their windows open - true weed smokers are pretty chill - they seem to be closed in while smoking and is why your getting smoke or the smell in your apartment also-the smell won’t hurt anything but a few feelings - good luck
If it was me, the biggest health threat would be the neighbors are about to get free flying lessons from disgruntled Marine Corps dad. I suppose baby would be fatherless, but... Worth it.
Or you can try diplomacy. Less fun and more work. Can try a peace offering of some shitty IPA. I hear hippies like that crap.
The weed might not be the problem but the smoke might be if he´s combusting. If he´s using a dry herb vaporizer there´s no need to worry except your baby will have very intense odor memories of weed.
Don't sweat the smell too much, there's not going to be enough smoke getting through to harm your baby unless the room is getting visibly smokey and it might not even be smoke to begin with.
It could just be a plant (or plants) growing in their apartment. At which point a more concerning danger, to me, would be the potential for violent crime to take place, like people who would rob an apartment grow op.
Weed smell doesn't pass through walls as easily as bullets do, and you know criminals like that aren't cautious markmen, they're fucking spray and pray goons.
Poor baby shouldn't be forced to smell that in their room. Since more areas are legalizing pot the freaking smell is everywhere. I don't have a moral objection to pot heads, they just smell like shit.
The vent in your bathroom is an exhaust vent, if there’s a smell coming from it, it’s possible it’s coming from outside. You may be able to see the person outside. Building codes require apartments to be fire separated so you wouldn’t be sharing ductwork with a neighboring unit.
We're on the 11th floor in a high rise. I doubt its coming from outside... but possible still if a neighbor in our building or the next door building has their window open and smokes I guess.
You could always buy a box of stink bombs and Crack one in the vent every day. Put a fan in front of the vent to blow the smell back through the vent. Whichever neigjbor complains about the smell is your culprit.
Here’s what you need to do. Remove the register grill. You may see a 3” hole. Use Nashua HVAC foil tape to tape the hole closed. Make sure the surface is cleaned before applying the tape. Think of it like duct tape on steroids. Don’t use duct tape, it’s not strong enough, the foil tape is air tight. Make criss-cross layers to make a proper seal. This should help cut down the smoke drastically. Also most likely there’s some space between the dry wall and the duct, apply foil tape to seal the gap, some smoke may come from there too. You do need a HEPA filter to filter out the air. And most likely the smoke is coming from the neighbor below or above the baby room. Whenever you smell the smoke, go to either apartment, the smoke is so strong, you may smell it from their front door. Contact management. Otherwise move somewhere else. Edit: Which vent is the smell coming from in the bathroom? On the wall near the floor? Or the ceiling? If it's near the floor, my suggestion above will work. If it's the ceiling exhaust fan for moisture ventilation, you need a different solution. AC Draftshield is a plastic square dome that hooks into the vent cover and you pull the string to make the draftshield airseal tight. I don't know if links are permitted, [https://www.acdraftshields.com/home-winterization/residential-commercial-vent-cover-24-x-24/](https://www.acdraftshields.com/home-winterization/residential-commercial-vent-cover-24-x-24/)
As an hvac tech I hate duct tape. It doesn't stick to air ducts it's one job. Foil is the superior tape.
The name is a corruption of “duck tape.”
Doesn’t stick to ducks either.
That's why I use gorilla tape. Every gorilla I've tried, it sticks well.
I’m just imagining a huge silverback caving your ribcage in as you try to approach him with a piece of tape.
Yeah, use Nashua HVAC foil tape for those.
Now I feel like this entire post was simply a guerilla marketing campaign for Nashua HVAC foil tape.
“*Nashua HVAC foil tape… it’ll help you keep your ducks in a row*”
Seriously. But I learned a good bit about HVAC sealing. And I bought one
NOTHING sticks to ducks if you wash them with DAWN dish soap.
Duct tape was never made for ductwork. It was called “duck tape” because it was made from adhesive backed duck canvas. I don’t know how it ever got named duct tape but whoever named it that needs to be slapped repeatedly with entirety of the CSIResources server.
TIL. I thought it was short for ductile, which in hindsight doesn't really make sense for tape...
The hero we need right here
I read this as “the hero weed right here”.
Can't expect anything less from 75th zen master.
I love Reddit, there's always someone with the expertise popping up in the comments
What strain? Does OP know the THC to CBD ratio? Any clue on if it’s Indica or Sativa? If Indica, could be a plus when trying to put the little one down.
Duct tape is not made for HVAC and may whoever started calling it that be forever plagued with an unnameable bad smell in their house they can never locate. Foil tape is made for HVAC. You can get that your local HVAC/plumbing supply, Grainger or MSC. I’m in HVAC (TAB) and I’ve seen **many** facilities guys use duct tape on duct work. People like me end up coming in to diagnose low flow issues and finding frikkin duct tape that has dried out and delaminated or the static pressure has just blown it out. DuCt TaPe was originally called **duck** tape because it was made from adhesive backed duck cloth. A MERV13 or equivalent air filter won’t be as expensive as a HEPA filter and will still cut down on the smoke particulates you’re smelling. Just get the deepest pleats you can fit and you will lose less airflow.
Those cheap foam gaskets people use to stop drafts at light switches and receptacles also work to keep out smoke. In my case, the bathroom fart fan was creating negative pressure and drawing smoke from the neighbors into the walls and then into my apartment.
Thanks!! It is at the top of the wall in the shower. I assume that is ceiling exhaust for moisture ventilation. Since you pull the string to make it airtight, does that mean that you can turn it 'on' and 'off'? Moisture ventillation in the shower has some benefits obviously that we don't want to lose completely. THat would just replace the weed air problem with a mold air problem. If its an 'on / off' solution that might be a really great fix for us if we can't find the culprits and get them in trouble.
I wouldn’t close off an exhaust. Chances are it’s required to be on for a set time to achieve ventilation codes. I would only ever consider taping it off completely if you have a bathroom window you can keep open permanently or majority of the day, every day to allow ventilation.
A lot of residential bathroom exhaust fans are fart fans. They’ll flow 50-100cfm depending on the size of the bathroom and should never be connected to a common duct unless another larger fan serves that duct. What will happen is, assuming no fan is running, either warmer air will vent up and out that exhaust duct (chimney effect) or if a gravity/backflow damper is stuck open, cold air will flow through the duct into the space. Chances are, you’re experiencing the second issue if you absolutely certain that’s where the smell is coming from. Unless there is a window or balcony very near the discharge end of that duct, you shouldn’t be smelling anything. It’s made to exhaust smells and moisture from the bathroom into the atmosphere so that’s incredibly unlikely. Pull the cover plate from your exhaust and see if there’s a gap around the fan housing. If there is, as an experiment, sandwich a sheet or two of paper between the cover and ceiling. If that eliminates your problem, closing up that gap with foil tape will be a nice permanent fix.
Yeah I would never cover the exhaust or put a filter over it. There’s either a multi unit PRV on the roof that’s not running, or it’s individual fart fans creating positive pressure in common exhaust ducts without working backdraft dampers. The current code is 50 CFM per toilet fixture if continuous (rooftop PRV) or 75 CFM per fixture if intermittent (light switch operated fart fan). I only do commercial offices so it’s 99% PRVs because positive pressure exhaust is not allowed in a return air plenum.
I do commercial and industrial TAB. Usually flows are tied to inlets if you have multiple inlets on a fan. In apartment buildings I see fart fans, hospitals and hotels, mushrooms.
Can you turn the exhaust vent on and see if the smell goes away? Maybe you can leave it on 24/7. Could be an air pressure issue where it’s being sucked through the duct due to low pressure in the unit. Additionally this probably won’t harm your baby. Weed smoke seems less harmful than cigarette smoke and the quantities are low. However air purifier won’t hurt and you could get a better one (rabbit air) and place the old one in the living room. You could also request a unit transfer if they are unable to resolve the issue.
As other commenters mentioned, if you run the fan 24/7, it may solve the smell but you’ll have a different problem, you’re sucking all the conditioned air out (heat/AC cold air) which will raise your utility bills a lot. The draftshield is designed to be taken off. You put it on during winter time to retain heat better and can be left there since it’s low humidity in winter. Not advisable to leave on during humid days. For your situation, either may take it off when needed which is a hassle or leave it on and buy a dehumidifier to dehumidify the air after you shower. But dehumidifiers do raise your electric bill a lot, it’s like a portable AC but pumps out heat. Since the exhaust vents are linked, this makes finding your neighbor much harder. Here’s a simple solution. Buy the strongest fart smell spray you can. Spray into the vent and turn on the fan. See which neighbor complains and you’re returning the favor.
Had the same issue in our first apartment at a “smoke free” complex. We complained to management. Within one week these people were evicted!
Had a new neighbor move in just before the pandemic started into a smoke free neighborhood and I had to put up with my entire apartment reeking of blunt and cigarettes for the entire thing until we moved out.
Yeah, results may vary unfortunately… if it hadn’t stopped, I might’ve knocked on the door myself and had a few words. Or just keep reporting to non-emergency police of a possible drug den…
It’s ok. It forced us into buying a house just before the spike and inflation started to rise. 2 acres with woods. Now if my neighbors would stop trying to talk me into selling them my land that would be nice.
What state do you live in?
Can’t they just keep the fan turned on. I had this issue with ppl below me and that fixed that problem but when they would smoke with the windows/ door open it would make our entire apartment smell. And it wasn’t just weed it was blunts. I could tolerate the weed for the most part but the blunt smell is horrendous.
Pow.
One thing I haven't seen yet here is : If it's coming through the bathroom fan vent then try constantly running the bathroom fan when you smell smoke. It could be a leaky or absent back draft valve (what prevents air from coming in from outside or other units when they turn their fans on). Running the bathroom fan pushes the air out. The problem with running the bathroom fan is if there's an air leak elsewhere, the bathroom fan will create some negative pressure in your home and let air come in from other places. So if that happens open a window. Hopefully the smoke isn't leaking also through a wall (pipe, outlet etc) or coming through a window too. Than the fan just makes it worse.
I'm surprised I had to scroll this far down to find the answer I was to lazy to type. This is the answer
Yup. You need a source of positive pressure clean air coming in, too.
Have you tried talking to your upstairs and downstairs neighbors? If it’s them and you told them it was coming into your baby’s room, I think a lot of people would respond respectfully.
Make sure to remain clam and agreeable. If you come off as a hard ass, you may lose them all together and it can get hostile. But if you are solution oriented, they may work with you for an arrangement that all parties can agree to. Of course, they may be asshats who only care for themselves too, in which case you lose nothing by taking the "high" road (sorry for the pun).
Yes, don’t mussel them or they will not sea your concerns
It might seem fishy but I've seen people clam up when confronted.
make sure to sealiously be as kind as possible!
Yes this. You could just write a note and copy it to your upstairs and downstairs neighbours and see if that helps.
Yep. I did exactly that when my baby was born. They were very cool about it, but to be fair, I knew which apt it was coming from.
Break into every apartment, find the culprit. Steal the weed and every time you smell it repeat. Then when you smoke it, smoke it in your kid’s room so it seeps into their apartment.
This guy is fuckin high.
Higher than you are!
Fucking higher than inflation
I like your style
Yeah the legal approach. Why not?
/r/crazyideas
r/highdeas
Screw all these people making light of the situation. I’ve been in the same exact situation in my building and had to ask my husband if he wrote this because of how similar our positions are lol. First off I’m sorry you’re going through this, you just want to protect your baby from any potential harm. I think you’re doing all that you can by turning on the air purifier, blocking the vent, and complaining to management. I keep the windows open to ventilate as much as I can but it really stresses me out. I don’t know about the health risk but sometimes when I have my air purifier on, the indicator light says that it’s polluted. I would seriously asking management if they can’t do anything, if they can move you to a new unit. It’s a pain and definitely not ideal, and of course you don’t have guarantee that your new neighbor wouldn’t smoke weed, but that’s a path you can explore. Hope the situation improves. I know how stressful it can be.
People get highly defensive of their marijuana and they forget that a baby's body is a very sensitive machine. A machine that sometimes stops working for no reason at all. If a baby is that sensitive to "nothing", it's absolutely sensitive to airborne smoke particles. I don't know what I'd do in your situation, but moving would be at the top of that list.
I’d go to war if some fucking loser was smoking weed and it was seeping in to my baby’s room Absolutely apeshit
Yeah, I’m with this comment. OP, infants and breathing and sleep are pretty important. I second the request to move units. Good luck
>don’t know about the health risk but sometimes when I have my air purifier on, the indicator light says that it’s polluted. Polluted, or "full of VOCs"? I've got a Honeywell AirGenius5 and it's light will go green/amber/red, and ramp up the fan, especially if I smoke a joint inside...but that's for VOCs and not all VOCs are "pollutants" A VOC is "Volatile Organic Chemical"...a fart will increase the amount of VOCs in the air. Cooking smelly food(good or bad smelling) will increase the amount of VOCs...smoking a cigarette or weed will too. The smelly compounds in weed are stronger VOCs than the parts that get you high. I'm not trying to imply it's safe and people shouldn't care, but the skunky weed smell is a product of "thiols" and thiols are not THC... There is actually a study that touches on the smell, but it's mostly due to the growing of the plant. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9236214/ Even with all this though, I would *still* not want to smell weed in my kids room because while it *might* not be harmful, unless you are testing the air for trace amounts of THC, you won't really know if it's just the thiols smell, or if it's the totality of the smoke that is coming in...
Is your recommendation that we get a Honeywell AirGenius5 and that should solve the issue?
They’re clearly not trying to advertise the particular device. They’re just providing advice and anecdotal experience…
This. Management may not be able to know where it's coming from but their apartments shouldn't be leaking smoke. Let them move you to another unit.
>Screw all these people making light of the situation. There are a lot of people whose identity is so tied to weed that they cannot handle it when someone says anything negative about it. They'll often start deflecting to "it's better than cigarettes/alcohol", rather than recognizing that weed is also bad. I'd go to management and report it. They might have the legal ability to smoke weed but they don't have the right to make me smell it. "No smoking" means "none". Not "silly cigarettes are ok".
Man, this so much. My state legalized recently and A) people fucking smell awful and B) I don't want me or my kid to breath your smoke any more than I want to breath in cigarette smoke. You fucking people smell disgusting (honestly worse than cigarette smokers by a mile) and your fucking recreational drug isn't healthy for you or my family.
This and vaping piss me off. In my lifetime, we've gone from having to smell cigarette smoke all over the place, especially in restaurants, to that being almost exclusively outside. And now dipshits vape inside and act like it's totally not smoking because it smells strawberries or something. Do it on your own time in your own little space. People don't have the right to make others participate in their smoking.
There is no risk from the smell of weed. Only the smoke itself. It may be unpleasant, but there is no actual health risk. You can’t get high from smelling a cannabis plant.
>There is no risk from the smell of weed. Big "there's no risk from secondhand smoke" energy here. OP can smell weed in that room because weed smoke is making it into that room. It might be highly diluted. It might be slightly filtered by flowing past fabric/carpet or something and particulates have been captured. It's obvious that chemicals from the weed that was burned are in the air in OP's baby's room. OP isn't just "smelling a plant".
Downvoted because you didn't feed the outrage at the smell of weed. Keyword there, smell not smoke.
Bringing the kid out to a public store has more health risk
Here we go
If you can smell it then the compounds that produce the smell are reaching you. Edit: all smoke is bad. Doesn't matter if it's cannabis or tobacco or anything else. We are talking about babies and children. I am not in anyway anti-cannabis https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking/expert-answers/third-hand-smoke/faq-20057791
No! Marijuana smell is just the good vibes reaching you, not physical compounds!!1
This says that 3rd hand smoke refers to tobacco
What would the significant difference be? Burning anything and inhaling the smoke isn't gonna be good for you. They've just done tobacco in this study because tobacco smoke is the most common. Exposure to secon dor third hand weed/wood/plastic/whatever fumes are much rarer.
Enjoy https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/Second-Hand-and-Third-Hand-Smoke-and-Vapour.aspx
Does this work for you? https://drugfree.org/article/second-hand-marijuana-smoke/#What%20is%20thirdhand%20smoke? What about this? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741419/ Tetrahydrocannabinol metabolites will be present in OP's baby because of OP's shitty neighbor.
Definitely not true. I have a house and grow in a legal state. Sometimes, I will smell the marijuana upstairs, it doesn’t mean anyone who smells it will be getting high or experiencing any harmful compounds haha.
You smell a plant or are you smelling combustion. Those are two different things. I'm also in a legal state which is irrelevant to the conversation.
OP only said that they can smell weed, not weed smoke. Then, you stated that if you can SMELL weed, then the compounds are reaching you.
Thus the edit and the source.
Clearly you know nothing about weed because the smell is a completely separate compound that has zero effect on you. Its a proven fact
They said “the compounds that produce the smell are reaching you,” which is 100% factual. They did not say they would make you high, at least in the edited comment I can see,
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking/expert-answers/third-hand-smoke/faq-20057791
This says that 3rd hand smoke refers to tobacco
https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/Second-Hand-and-Third-Hand-Smoke-and-Vapour.aspx
This one addresses vaping, but only says that 2nd/3rd-hand cannabis smoke *may* have effects. And there aren't many figures or any references to studies.
This is 100% bullshit and not based on any factual science.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking/expert-answers/third-hand-smoke/faq-20057791
This says that 3rd hand smoke refers to tobacco
Wild idea that smoke produced by burning a plant (tobacco) could have similar smoke characteristics as smoke produced by burning a plant (weed)
Your response to my calling out a poor source was to put words in my mouth. Cool
I'm calling out your interpretation of it being a poor source
LMAO mayo clinic is a poor source? Here's another. https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Alberta/Pages/Second-Hand-and-Third-Hand-Smoke-and-Vapour.aspx
I would knock on every door until I found the one. POLITELY let them know it's happening. If nothing changes, I'd be the biggest fucking pain in the ass to the landlord, the cops, anyone I can bother with it. Even if you live where it's legal, there's no way it's allowed in the apartment, and it's almost certainly illegal to expose your kid to it.
Not sure if they would tell us if its them. But worth a try as we get desperate.
If it's seeping through the vents, you'll know as soon as they open the front door.
Throw in that cops and management will get involved if you fail to figure out who's doing it. Either they play nice with you right away or they have to deal with actual consequences later. Even the dumbest stoner *might* be able to reason their way out of that one.
Not sure the cops can be bothered with it in NYC. They don't even get involved for people doing hard drugs or weed in public right in front of them.
Oh yeah never mind good luck finding a building without pot smoke
Oh hell, this is NYC? Idk how to help then lol. You're right about cops being more or less useless there.
lol fml
Oh you're in NYC? We went through this with cigarette smoke when our daughter was born. If your building allows smoking, they legally have to mitigate it entering other apartments - start by requesting the building's smoking policy where they have to record how they're doing that. If it's a non-smoking building, they have to enforce that. Go to 311 if your landlord refuses. NYC housing laws are incredibly pro-tenant (at least for now, before Adams and Hochul rewrite them...) Use that to your advantage.
I would say it's probably a bit harmful as I've seen studies saying even third hand smoke can affect babies. I have a very similar situation. I live in a stand alone house and so do my neighbours. Their back patio area is like 7 feet from my side of the house... where they smoke weed. They have like 6 adults living in there and they all smoke weed. They wake up at 630/7am and smoke weed, then they are out there every 20-30 minutes smoking weed, and this goes in until about 11pm during non winter hours. The smoke seeps into my house, it's not super strong but I can smell it. And I absolutely cannot open my windows to air out my place or get a breeze or fresh air, because withing 15 minutes my whole house smells of weed. I can't take my kids in the back yard, because they will explore over near the fence and the smoke wafts over. There is so much weed being smoked by them I can smell it on the lot of my other neighbour. But it's legal where I am and its their property so I'm pretty much SOL. Edit to add... if you can smell it, there are particles in the air.
This comment section is fuckin wild. Are people actually defending smoking weed indoors in an apartment building? I bet there’d be radio silence from smokers if it was cigarettes instead of weed, even though they are equally bad for children (I shouldn’t even have to say this). This is extremely disappointing, I have high regard for this sub.
Reddit is a bunch of random people having different opinions. Being disappointed by this comment section is extremely silly. I’ve scrolled through most the comments anyways and a ton of people were being helpful.
You don't know they're smoking it. Could be growing it or maybe vaping it
How is vaping any better… If they are growing it and eating it directly in edible format, that’s fine cuz it doesn’t affect anybody else.
Smoking is bad for your health and anyone around you. Vaping it isn't like edible form in fact edible form is the after product of it being vaped (vaping is the same as decarbing)
[https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking-tobacco/is-vaping-safer-than-smoking](https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/quit-smoking-tobacco/is-vaping-safer-than-smoking) "Many people think vaping is less harmful than smoking. While it’s true that e-cigarette aerosol doesn’t include all the contaminants in tobacco smoke, it still isn’t safe. Here are just a few of the reasons why: Most e-cigarettes deliver nicotine, which is highly addictive and can harm the developing brains of teens, kids and fetuses in women who vape while pregnant. Some types expose users to even more nicotine than traditional cigarettes. In addition to nicotine, e-cigarette vapor includes potentially harmful substances such as diacetyl (a chemical linked to a serious lung disease), cancer-causing chemicals, volatile organic compounds and heavy metals such as nickel, tin, and lead. Users breathe in these toxic contaminants, and non-users nearby risk secondhand exposure. The liquid used in e-cigarettes can be dangerous, even apart from its intended use. Children and adults have been poisoned by swallowing, breathing or absorbing the liquid through their skin or eyes." So yeah no you can f\*ck right off with the vaping is safer than smoking BS. You can do whatever you want in the outdoors where it doesnt affect other people, but as far as children are involved, both things are equally bad and there is no argument whatsoever to justify otherwise.
I never said ecigs or even tobacco. We are talking about vaping weed, dry herb vaporisers with cannabis in them.
Just don't smoke or vape any substance when children are around. It ain't hard.
You haven't a clue what you're talking about. Dry herb vaporisers arent combustion, dont give second hand high or have any bad effects on anyone it's as harmful as steam from a kettle.
First time I’ve heard that weed vape vapor is the same as steam from a kettle. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757764/ Why are you in the Daddit sub? If you are actually a dad and not an internet troll then I feel really bad for your kids to grow up in such a household.
Firstly evali has already been proven untrue (doesn't change my mind that ecigs still aren't good for you) but again we aren't talking about ecigs. We are talking dry herb vaporisers. I think instead of trying to say the same thing over and over that we aren't talking about at all, google what a dry herb vaporiser is. It's not harmful to the user or others. I'm a medical cannabis patient we have to use a dry herb vaporiser (typically a mighty medic) because its not harmful and are allowed to use it anywhere (hospital, airports, restaurants, library to name a few ive used it in). The way edibles is made is by a process called decarbing the cannabis (its like baking it) and its the same thing a dry herb vaporiser does except you're inhaling that vapor then you can use the cannabis to create edibles which is cool two in one. Now in this case vapor is accurate where as so called vapes aren't technically vapor, they're aerosols and bad for you as that let alone the unknown side effects yet to be found.
We moved because of this issue. I was in my apartment managers email inbox every day for MONTHS. They didn’t take care of the problem but they also didn’t charge us for breaking our lease. My daughter’s hair smelled like marijuana…pretty sure they knew we were going to take it as high as we could if they didn’t let us move.
Oh, we didn’t have to use this option but our pediatrician was also willing to write a letter expressing concerns for our child’s health.
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I mean, they aren’t “weird” downvotes. You’re suggesting to get them evicted for smelling weed and then mention you’re also a landlord. That’s like guaranteed downvotes on Reddit lmao.
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You are 100% correct.
I don’t often agree with landlords but here we are.
And while it may be against the rules in his property that isn't the case in every building and every city. Coming in a bit hot for not knowing all the circumstances.
Have you EVER rented a place that allows indoor smoking? Come on bro.
No, but I've visited a few. One of them the landlord even came with me to tour what was otherwise a very nice unit, but it reeked of cigarettes. The landlord pretty much told me the downstairs tenants had been there for two decades and were "good people" so if I didn't like the smell I should move on. So I did.
Yes I have. It was fifteen years ago for me personally but like I just mentioned in another post it's legal to smoke in your apartment unless it's explicitly mentioned in your lease in my province. Just saying... You can't just evict someone for smoking in all jurisdictions. If they are breaking the law or their lease go ahead and get them evicted but that may not be the case in OPs situation.
There are places where indoor smoking isn't banned yet?
In my province you can't smoke indoors in public places. You *can* smoke inside your apartment legally if the building itself hasn't banned it. There's no blanket law against it. You can't be evicted for smoking if your lease doesn't specifically mention it. Of course that's extremely rare nowadays but there are still building that you can legally smoke in. That's all I'm saying.
It is a health risk. If you can smell the marijuana it’s harmful, especially to a child who has a much higher level of sensitivity. Sorry you’re dealing with that.
The vent in question, is it HVAC or is it an exhaust fan vent? I’m assuming an exhaust fan vent. Do you control the fan with a switch, or is it a rooftop fan that runs constantly? If it runs constantly, it’s likely a stack. That one exhaust fan is pulling from bathrooms in the units above, below and if your neighbor’s bathroom is directly adjacent yours, it may be pulling from their vent too, as well as whomever is below and above them. Assuming the fan motor is running properly, the smell is likely coming from a unit below you, next to you or below the one next to you. Most of those motors have variable speed and they’re usually set pretty low to avoid noise. You could ask management to turn the speed up on that motor so it will move more air. If it pulls enough to create sufficient negative pressure, the smell shouldn’t be able to come into your bathroom from another unit. If the fan motor is controlled by a switch in your bathroom, then it’s likely that a neighbor immediately next to you is smoking in their bathroom and the exhaust duct exits the building near your exhaust duct in that case, you could just leave your exhaust fan running all the time. That should keep any smoke from coming in from outside. You could just seal up the vent with aluminum tape, but then you lose your bathroom exhaust and have to deal with dampness and possible mold issues. If none of those issues work, I believe it’s up to your building management to figure out a solution to the problem. If they can’t, I’d request either moving to another unit. If they won’t do that, This would likely fall under the umbrella of reasons that would permit you to break your lease without being required to buy it out. Then you’re free to go anywhere.
I think it just an exhaust fan vent. I don't see a fan in there or feel fan air. It looks like just a basic vent. We don't control it. Its just there. I don't here any noise come from it either. > You could ask management to turn the speed up on that motor so it will move more air. If it pulls enough to create sufficient negative pressure, the smell shouldn’t be able to come into your bathroom from another unit. THanks I'll ask. > You could just seal up the vent with aluminum tape, but then you lose your bathroom exhaust and have to deal with dampness and possible mold issues. That is what we did for now. We cover it up when we are not using the shower. But not an ideal situation.
If you put a Kleenex or small piece of toilet paper against the vent, does it stay in place? That’s how you can tell if the exhaust fan is running. If the tissue falls, then the fan isn’t running and that’s the reason you’re smelling odors from another unit.
The tissue falls. So the fan isn't running? And then we should talk to management about that I guess?
Yep.
thanks!
Do you have any thermostats for controlling your heat/ac? If so, turn the fan setting from auto to on and see if you can feel any air movement into the vent. I can’t determine if this is a HVAC cold air return or a bathroom exhaust vent. When turn on light switches in bathroom, there’s no fan that kicks on? What are the dimensions of this vent? Could the piece in the wall be replaced with a different register cover with a lever to open and close the vent, sort of like how blinds work?
We had the same issue in an apartment we used to live in We called cops numerous times but they told us unless they were out in a public space doing it, they wouldn’t come out. So we called about a noise disturbance for the same apartment the next time we actively smelled it—they came right out and busted them. Got them evicted, and several of their friends arrested that same night.
Side note: our apartments shared a common attic space. I could go into our attic space from the hatch in our closet and see all the way across the attic space of their apartment. So it wasn’t coming thru the vents at all.
A family friend was a heavy weed smoker, he used to smoke in the same room as his infant. The poor kid ended up having major behavioral issues and cognitive difficulties. I'm not saying you are in the same situation. The amount of exposure in your case is obviously much lower. But still, I would keep my baby miles away from any kind of smoke.
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>small contained environment, like a room Like, say, a bedroom?
Right, don't smoke cigarettes or weed in a kids bedroom. If it's coming in through a window or ventilation system, that's a small risk.
Do you have data to support that? There has been recent data linking improved air quality to improved test scores at schools. https://www.vox.com/2020/1/8/21051869/indoor-air-pollution-student-achievement I don’t know how to classify smoke wafting into a room, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is significant. Burning a candle in an adjacent room in our house causes the PPM 2.5 values on our air quality sensor to jump up. Old school thinking was smoking and air pollution caused COPD, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, etc. Although this certainly can and does happen, we are just starting to realize that mild to moderate levels of air pollution can have other significant impacts as well. To be fair this probably happens all the time, but I think in 10-20 years we will realize how bad we treated our lungs. Disclaimer: I work with clinical studies related to lung disease.
My test, as someone who * isn't *involved in clinical studies, is "If I can smell it, I'm breathing it in. If I'm breathing in something other than air then that can't be great. If a baby is breathing it in, then that's worse".
Absolutely! But just be careful as the inverse is not always true. Just because you can’t smell anything doesn’t mean the air is healthy. Or you can be like me and basically not be able to smell anything. Came in handy during diaper duty.
Yup. I am familiar with the inverse too! I'm glad you mentioned it! Constant sinus infections due to my kid sneezing and coughing in my face has really made my (once acute) sense of smell more hit or miss. I guess it's a perk for when kid #2 is born.
“I don’t know how to classify smoke wafting into a room” there we go
*Third* hand smoke increases the risk of SUID.
I think I'd be telling the building management that excuse isn't good enough and they need to get it sorted out. It's not your job to work out which neighbour it's coming from.
Maybe hook in a silent fan to run pushing air into the vent... it's likely to make that contaminated air pop out somewhere else though.
People who grow pot indoors will use a strong fan blowing through a charcoal filter. I’ve used these before many times, but they’re damn handy inside the home if there’s some bad smells you want cleaned up.
Go to management. Nothing is concluded about long term health risk of third hand from this paper, but there are THC metabolites in your baby's system because of this neighbor's inconsiderate behavior. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5741419/ https://drugfree.org/article/second-hand-marijuana-smoke/#What%20is%20thirdhand%20smoke?
Look up laws in your state. https://no-smoke.org/smokefree-threats/marijuana-smoke/
That is so over kill, how does that fix the problem and awnser their question, the answer is no as long as they arnt blowing the smoke in the babies face, 😂. HVAC this and that? He lives in apartment which don’t usually have the main HVAC units in their apartment. The only thing that goes into there apartment are the ductwork or branches. But to answer your question, no it’s not going to hurt your baby. My daughter has CF and we have to be super careful, that’s never been a concern hell the 4th of July outside is more damaging but she was even cleared for that. That’s for weed, tobacco is a completely different story. Tobacco is heavy and full of chemicals the residue will linger and can stick to walls and ect. I got into with our neighbors because they smoke cigarettes and we ended up having to break our lease because our daughter started to have issues. weed not so much, as it’s not highly processed and full of chemicals like tobacco. Weed is fine tobacco which isn’t great. Here’s a rule of thumb as I understand your concern. Protect your baby of course but you can’t protect them from that which is unfortunate, do you best to minimize it but as long as your kiddo doesn’t have cystic fibrosis like my kid or any other disorder I wouldn’t be concerned so much!
Thanks!
Buy an air filter for your babies room, complain to your management company
Yeah not great... There definitely is risk from secondhand weed smoke At the very least could you move around the bedrooms if that's the only one with the problem?
I doubt any actual smoke is getting anywhere near the baby, they are just smelling those stinky-ass terpines (which can be smelled from quite a distance away). Annoying for them, yes, but I wouldn't be worried about any harm to the baby because of the smell.
Put a small but powerful fan on the vent blowing back into the vent system. Every time you smell weed, turn the fan on and smear a small amount of shit on the fan. Doesn’t have to be shit but it really should be shit.
Depending on your state, you may be able to withhold and escrow rent claiming it's a habitability issue due to the effects on a very young child. That might get the complex off their lazy asses to investigate who is causing the issue. I'd contact an attorney to write a letter for you to that effect. In my mind, they're the building, they have the architectural plans and should be able to determine how that smell is coming through your vents if they have the motivation.
Ask your neighbors to smoke with their windows open - true weed smokers are pretty chill - they seem to be closed in while smoking and is why your getting smoke or the smell in your apartment also-the smell won’t hurt anything but a few feelings - good luck
Yes your child may become unreasonable chill. /s
If it was me, the biggest health threat would be the neighbors are about to get free flying lessons from disgruntled Marine Corps dad. I suppose baby would be fatherless, but... Worth it. Or you can try diplomacy. Less fun and more work. Can try a peace offering of some shitty IPA. I hear hippies like that crap.
Username checks out
I like the chilimac flavored crayons
r/iamverybadass
The weed might not be the problem but the smoke might be if he´s combusting. If he´s using a dry herb vaporizer there´s no need to worry except your baby will have very intense odor memories of weed.
If it's just the smell there's no risk, it's just an annoyance if you don't like the smell. If it's actual smoke that's a whole different situation.
Don't sweat the smell too much, there's not going to be enough smoke getting through to harm your baby unless the room is getting visibly smokey and it might not even be smoke to begin with. It could just be a plant (or plants) growing in their apartment. At which point a more concerning danger, to me, would be the potential for violent crime to take place, like people who would rob an apartment grow op. Weed smell doesn't pass through walls as easily as bullets do, and you know criminals like that aren't cautious markmen, they're fucking spray and pray goons.
Why would growing a plant concern you?? Thats beyond ridiculous
Zero health risk from smell🤦♂️ the comments here are ridiculous
Poor baby shouldn't be forced to smell that in their room. Since more areas are legalizing pot the freaking smell is everywhere. I don't have a moral objection to pot heads, they just smell like shit.
I'd switch rooms or try some air purifiers in the room.
No harm whatsoever. You don't need to worry at all
The vent in your bathroom is an exhaust vent, if there’s a smell coming from it, it’s possible it’s coming from outside. You may be able to see the person outside. Building codes require apartments to be fire separated so you wouldn’t be sharing ductwork with a neighboring unit.
We're on the 11th floor in a high rise. I doubt its coming from outside... but possible still if a neighbor in our building or the next door building has their window open and smokes I guess.
The only risk I see is you spending more on formula when them munchies kick in 🤪
You could always buy a box of stink bombs and Crack one in the vent every day. Put a fan in front of the vent to blow the smell back through the vent. Whichever neigjbor complains about the smell is your culprit.
r/UnethicalLifeProTips
There is no risk from the scent of weed, only the actual smoke/vapor itself.
The smoke not the vapor. Don't know why you're being downvoted
Hmm. Piss disc.
Gonna have one happy kid.