Neighbours vaping

[RusBun]

We live in a large flat on the top floor with 2 smaller flats below us rented. Over the years different tenants came and went, but the last lot are the most troublesome. They Vape!

No, they don't JUST vape in their flats. The sickly sweet smell travels through their open windows upstairs into our windows. 5 minutes later my sinuses get blocked and I can't breathe, I get a headache and feel ill, anxious and enraged. The vapes surely must be so toxic... and I am not safe even in my own home!

This is not all. The vaping fumes travel through into the communal staircase and rise to our landing, where they sit forever regardless of open window. When we open the door to our flat, the fumes enter our apartment and it smells so bad we have to open windows to vent it.

My husband has a lung condition, the smell irritates his lungs. I have developed chemical smell sensitivity and multiple allergies after Covid. The vapes smell to me as bad as ammonia, it just hits you in the face with the poison and you want to run. FFP3 masks don't stop the smell either.

We own our property yet we can't even safely come in and out of it, or open windows in our flat. We explained the situation to the tenants, complained to their managing agent and their landlords but got nowhere. In fact, the landlords have tried to intimidate and bully us for complaining. Not sure what else can be done, but these tenants have to go. They will never stop vaping and I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

Seriously?

How on earth do you cope walking in the streets and around shops with traffic fumes and chemical fumes/smells if you are both so sensitive to vape steam which dissipates in seconds.

I’d hazard a guess that your symptoms are psychosomatic as I struggle to see how you’d be in any way affected unless they breathed the steam in your face.

How are you going to make the tenants ‘go’ when they are doing something perfectly legal and which they are quite entitled to do?

Exactly this!

Agree with @LargeAmericano. You can't make them 'go' anywhere and I highly doubt the vape steam drifts aimlessly for hours until the second you open your door and then it comes in 🤣

I call bullshit

It's not steam! If you can't breathe how are you still alive?

You are probably two of the few people on the planet who'd really benefit from a high-spec air conditioner/purifier. I recommend investing in one, or even a proper built-in system like the one Parliament treated itself to while the plebs were dying of Covid.

I second PPs, though - how the bloody hell do you cope with Outdoors and all its toxins?

This is complete codswallop. I can’t even smell when my husband is vaping in the same room as me and half my team confess to smoking in the toilets at work without getting caught.

I bought an air purifier because I chain smoke and cook garlicky food in my tiny one-bed 😘 The worst thing about choosing one was having to wade through quagmires of Amazon reviewers sharing intricate details of how much less irritated their mucous membranes felt/didn't feel after a night with their Xing Xiaong State Of Art Hospital Grade Air Sterilization Purfication System, £25.99.

So many "highly sensitive" people! God knows how they cope, but the manufacturers of rock salt lamps and dodgy Chinese tech certainly try to help them 😂

I vape & bought an air purifier, it was showing the air quality was falling when I vaped & the unit was coming on automatically. Using it has stopped the oily residue I used to get before I bought it & while I don't use juice that has a strong smell, I no longer smell anything when I wake up or move from room to room. The one I bought was the Blue Air Blue 3350i, £239 from Argos. Nobody should be smoking or vaping in communal areas.

My DS vapes in his room all the time and I never smell it. They must have high strength super duper vapes. I'll swap you for my neighbours and their weed if you like?!

The landlords are bullying you,?

You deserve to be reported for harassment.

Just wait until they go and are replaced by weed smokers

Vape ‘smoke’ dissipates rather quickly so I cant see it snaking up the communal stairs, knocking on your door before sneaking through your keyhole, forming itself into a noose and choking out you and DH on the daily.

What’s the point in buying an air purifier if you’re smoking? I don’t smoke but actually love the smell of ciggies 😁😁

OP is obviously BU. Can you move OP? So you have no neighbours?

Perhaps, hey vape more than just vapes, perhaps they add illegal substances to the vapes? It smells very strong not just to me. But hyperosmia is real and a very debilitating condition. More about it here: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/sep/15/fragrance-sensitivity-why-perfumed-products-can-cause-profound-health-problems?fbclid=IwAR1dd7gvUDATq6E_46vWRcyg5WCrS22K3fGsKu6h1EY3xrC7Yx1FHxmTdmI

Side effects of vaping are documented in a medical article here: https://www.raleighcapitolent.com/blog/does-vaping-cause-allergies#:~:text=Since%20vaping%20can%20contribute%20to,diseases%20can%20cause%20nasal%20congestion.

I have the same problem. It is unhealthy and full of synthetic chemicals. I feel the anxiety and rage as well and I believe this is from the vape containing THC. You have every right to NOT be exposed to this in your own home.

Oh, and the fumes do linger. The sticky sweet smell lands on surfaces, air vents, etc and continues to smell for ages. I lived in an apartment where the previous tenant vapes and it is on the walls, the windows, the blinds, the refrigerator seal, everywhere! It's nauseating.