Smoking Smell

Hello,

My neighbours are incredibly heavy smokers and smoke every ten minutes. Unfortunately we share a small balcony (with a divider between us) which is where they smoke all day everyday.

The situation is so bad, that the smell is coming into my flat.

Could anyone recommend a plant/ small tree that could be placed on the balcony to absorb the smell?

I'm desperate at this point - so any thoughts would be gratefully received!

Thanks

 

I think you need to instal a fan to blow the smoke back at them. No plant will block the smoke at least i cant think of any.
Get a bright spark to wire up a cigarette smoke detector to an industrial fan that will blast them with wind.

You could maybe try a very densely growing clumping bamboo to block some smoke coming through it ?

 

I suppose you could always approach your local Environmental Health and make a complaint under section 79 1 b of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act.

This states that "smoke emitted from premises so as to be prejudicial to health or a nuisance;" is classed as a statutory nuisance and your local authority is required to investigate it and if proved serve an abatement notice against the person(s) causing the nuisance which will require them to take measures to prevent occurrence/re-occurrence of the nuisance (this is in section 80 of the same act).

I'm not sure if you want to go that far but you'd have to start logging how long they are smoking each day etc and if it's causing you to become ill with chest infections/sore throat/runny nose and if your furnishings start to smell. The investigators would have to assess whether it's causing you nuisance but it may be worth trying if you're desperate.

To be honest as has already been said, i doubt any plant/shrub would work. Try talking to them first, they may surprise you in a nice way! I do feel for you though - I can't stand the smell of ciggie smoke.

 

We tried this with our Environmental Health the year before last as at the time we lived in a ground floor flat (with garden) and the tenants above us would smoke all hours of the day outside the front of their stairway in front of our flat which caused a constant lingering cigarette smell to permeate the flat and at times you could physically see cigarette smoke coming through the window vents...

Environmental health told us emphatically that they would do nothing to help as they could not prevent the tenants from smoking in the vicinity of their property.

we came to realise that the actual issue was that they were not interested in trying to prosecute anything they didn't think was an easy win.

 

As an ex-smoker, I can honestly say that smokers often don't realise that they absolutely stink.

If they are approachable, I'd tell them directly. If they are not approachable, welll...

Next door to me, sometimes there are inconsiderate sorts that stop me enjoying my garden at times. It's not my fault that my sprinkler sometimes drifts over their side, forcing them to give me a bit morespace.

 

so this is on an outside balcony, not a contained area, and the wind blows your way most of the time I am gathering. Ok. Given that, the only thing is a fan to blow it back to them. maybe one of those wind fans from a movie studio could be rented then you tie it to your balcony and turn it on. (so that was my visual) Now to practicality, a small standing fan aimed at them. Or would your landlord force another area of smoking on your property, second hand smoke is bad.

 

Curry plant and lots of it!

 

the other thing. Is to give your landlord information about the dangers of second hand smoke and ask him if he can get them to smoke elsewhere as it stops you from your life style of sitting on the balcony. Or, if he has another flat open to move into?

 

I know not exactly the same but the house kind of behind mine has a BBQ outside probably 200 days of the year, in all weathers, and they BBQ fish, I think its Polish thing to BBQ fish, but it stinks. It doesn't really come to me much, but my neighbours are a retired couple who love to sit out in their garden. The local authority wont do anything about it. When suggested that we leave a sprinkler on that happens to go over their garden, we got told we would probably get an ASBO.

How stupid is it that filling your neighbours house and garden with dirty smoke is fine, but a bit of water sprayed on their patio is against the law.

 

Choose a sprinkler that has a vapour mode. Site it close to the boundary. It will spray straight up. Being vapour, it will trap smoke particles. Being vapour it will also drift on a breeze. Can you get an asbo if the wind unexpectedly blows water vapour off course occasionally?

 

The governments should just ban tobacco,take it off the shelves,gone! It would do us all a favour!
Im sick of stopping n starting and it does stink all round,esp if your an ex smoker you can smell one 100ft away @clueless1
people try and give up but its readily available if you have a weak moment,the government want it stopped but still sell it
@Laural Keep complaining,do anything you can you get get a ban on close proximity smoking x