Hello dave333-ga
Thank-you for your question.
The stale odour of tobacco is notoriously difficult to remove and is
an area of research that I used to work in for a multinational
company.
Some background knowledge of the subject first needs to be explained.
The majority of the harmful compounds are short-lived compounds and
are at the highest levels closest to the burning cigarette. As the
smoke dissipates the compounds in the smoke settle on the
surroundings, and therefore the build up of these compounds result in
increasing levels of malodour. Smoke is at its most harmful when it
can be inhaled into the lungs.
The degree to which the odour will be eradicated depends on a number of factors:
1) The amount of soft furnishings in the duplex. The more soft
furnishings, such as carpets, curtains/drapes, soft seating, the more
longer it will take for the odour to be removed as it tends to be much
harder to clean these materials. There are a number of excellent
products on the market that can help mask the odours on soft
furnishings.
2) The amount of ventilation to the duplex. If you increase the
ventilation the stale odours are more easily removed from the
atmosphere as they evaporate (they do not re-deposit themselves in the
duplex). I cannot stress how important this is, it sounds obvious to
open as many windows and doors as possible but you would be surprised
at how many people forget this and just rely on air conditioning
units!
3) The humidity of the duplex. There is a substantial amount of
evidence in the scientific literature that suggests that increasing
humidity decreases the amount of time that these odours linger. It
may be useful to have your landlord hire an indoor humidifier to try
to eliminate the odour.
4) Increasing the temperature of the duplex. By increasing the
temperature of the surroundings you are promoting evaporation of the
odourous compounds. The more odorous compunds you can get into the
air and have the air replaced with fresher air the better as you are
removing them and reducing the chance of them re-depositing in the
surroundings of your apartment.
When all of these factors are combined the odour will start to be
removed and lowered to an acceptable level. Whether you will
completely remove the odour is debatable as most people's noses have
different sensitivities but if you follow my advice above the odour
should be significantly reduced within 2 months.
There are also a number of old-wives tales for removing the odour from
rooms after someone has been smoking in it. In my experience the most
effective was to place a bowl of vinegar in the room overnight and the
room will be less offensive in the morning. These will not though
remove lingering odours that can only be removed by scrubbing the
surface or replacing the odourous items.
The health concerns regarding living in a duplex that once housed a
smoker should not be discounted completely as there are always risks
but it is not something, as a non-smoker myself, I would worry about.
There are always risks living somewhere and you probably have more
harmful risks under the kitchen sink or in the garage than is left in
once smoky room.
The majority of the carcinogens (cancer-causing) and harmful compounds
are short-lived, volatile compounds. Once the room has lost its
cloudy haze after a smoker has stopped smoking the risks are vastly
reduced.
The risks you hear about are always quoted for second-hand tobacco
smoke (known as Environmental Tobacco Smoke, ETS, in the industry) and
this is for the actual smoke that comes from a smoker's mouth and from
the end of a cigarette/cigar. The major risk time is when the smoke
is inhaled into your lungs and thus can cause damage to your lungs and
enter your bloodstream.
If there is no smoke in the atmosphere the usual facts and figures you
see quoted are no longer relevant to an apartment room. The bad smell
is generally not associated with ETS but with the residual compounds
deposited on surfaces.
The amount of harmful compounds evaporating from a non-smoky room
would probably be deemed negligible and would be far less than you
would inhale by filling your car up with fuel, for instance.
If you read some of the information in the links provided below you
will notice it all refers to breathing in smoke. There is very little
documentary evidence on the effects of living in a room where a smoker
once lived and the onus of all the reports is on reducing the amount
of smoking in rooms.
In summary, as a non-smoker I would not be worried about the
health-risks of living in an apartment that once housed a smoker; my
major concern would be the malodour in the room. Again, as a
non-smoker, I find this abhorrent and I would think twice about
renting any duplex that once housed a smoker because of the smell not
the health risk. It should be possible to reduce the odour from the
room to an acceptable level but this does take time and effort.
If you require any further information on this subject please ask for
clarification and I will do my best to respond swiftly.
Research strategy:
Personal experience in the area
Useful information on second-hand smoking:
http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/10_18.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/ets.htm
http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/
http://www.nsc.org/ehc/indoor/ets.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/research_data/environmental/etsfact3.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/factsheets/secondhand_smoke_factsheet.htm
http://www.ash.org.uk/html/factsheets.php |
