chawke

Strangely there's no longer such a smell in the building hall (even right next to the fire apt entrance), just my apartment. Maybe it's in the flooring, or it's something else. Either way I think I'll wait for the fire apartment repair to see if that helps.

No, you're right. :S Is it possible for the wall underneath to be charred but not the exterior (in the hall, facing the fire apartment)? Guess another renovation may be necessary.

Thanks but I don't see any burned material in my apartment (after the aforementioned sooty water leakage clean which was at the other end) as it was sealed at the time of the fire. It seems to be just a very distracting smell and maybe harmful chemicals.

Actually the smoky smell has returned after the two ~15-minute ozone sessions. I notice it a lot when I enter the apartment and when I wake up as I guess I'm no longer nose-blind at those times. I'll run it for longer periods and see if that helps. If not, guess I'll have to move when it's feasible to sell (which may not be now, as still waiting on repairs to the fire-damaged apartment opposite mine, which won't happen til the fire report is received).

Thanks for the advice. Good to know it's not necessarily harmful. I used an ozone generator for two 15-minute periods last week at either end of the apartment and it eliminated much if not virtually all of the smell. At this point I assume it's safe to start living there again.

There was a fire in an apartment facing directly opposite mine a few weeks ago, literally a few feet from my apartment, which destroyed the tenant's apartment (they've been relocated). I was away at the time. The damaged apartment is yet to undergo cleaning/renovation. While I did not notice any structural damage to my own apartment, there was sooty water leakage through the front door (now cleaned) and a fire smoke smell. Special fans were used to help clean the air in the hallways, but they weren't put in apartments. For my apartment I opened all windows and placed fans blowing outwards, and used an air purifier and AC. I did that for at least a few hours at a time for a number of days - whenever I was at my apartment - but have been primarily staying at my girlfriend's ever since the fire as I still notice a smoke smell despite my cleaning efforts. Does the smell necessarily mean there are harmful chemicals present in the air in my apartment? Are there any additional steps you'd recommend? Thanks.

I bought a cable with a preposition 65 notice for lead and lead compounds. This notice isn't found for many other cables but I realize it can be excluded from packaging in areas where not required. Is it that most cords/cables still contain lead but don't have notices, or most today don't have lead?

Well I've sealed the apartment door and windows using stripping, and had brought up the issue with the board who've long since put signs up telling smokers to not smoke on the stoop (in fact the chairman said not to do so to one smoker in particular who regularly smoked at this location); but still, smokers, including at least said resident who continues to smoke there multiple times daily or close to daily, lead to whiffs of smoke smell entering my apartment, which seem to mainly enter through the front window even when it's visibly fully closed. Again, I'm not sure how much actual secondhand smoke this smell correlates with (still missing scientific studies on this) and whether the amount is significant over the longterm, but in any case I'm restricting opening of this window (for air circulation) to late night / early morning due to the smoking mainly occurring during the day and early evening, although as I said this doesn't fully prevent the smell from entering the window.

Not yet, something to eventually do. Most of the smoke seems to be entering through the closed window however. Until I figure out how to completely shield my room from smokers outside, are there any studies that examine the extent to which the smell of smoke correlates with secondhand smoke? The most I've found is a sentence from this page: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/By_the_way_doctor_Is_the_smell_of_cigarettes_the_same_as_secondhand_smoke

They are roughly 5-8 feet away from my window and 10-11 feet away from my door depending on where they are standing, based on the room and building measurements. On top of that, in this particular room in my apartment (currently my bedroom) I usually sleep/lie around 5-10 feet from the window and 8-9 feet from the door. I put an air purifier directly in front of the window (1.5 feet away) which I run for at least 30 minutes when I smell smoke and verify there is a smoker outside.

I live on a first-floor apartment right near the building entrance where the smell of smoke from tenants smoking near or at the entrance enters my apartment through the front window or door. I've made efforts to mitigate this issue including by sealing the window, using an air purifier and spraying Febreze, but none of these completely help and the latter two don't prevent the smell from entering in the first place. I'm considering making a suggestion to the board to have tenants smoke further away from the building. In the meantime I'd like to know: how much does the smell of smoke correlate with secondhand smoke in terms of harmful chemicals etc? I read there is not necessarily a correlation, so am wondering to what degree the smell of smoke entering my room multiple times a day would correlate with actual harm over the longterm.

For the biology people out there, question for you: does exhaling deeply immediately after inhaling something help to expel it from the lungs? For example, if one inhales smoke or other substance and then immediately exhales as deeply as they can, does that get rid of (more of) the smoke/substance in their body (than otherwise)? Or does it do nothing, or worse?

It’s food purchased from a food delivery app and doesn’t have a list of ingredients. Indian savory dish with rice and meat. The toxic substance didn’t smell or taste like vinegar and it was much stronger.

I almost ingested something that smelled and tasted toxic and similar to nail polish remover in food my wife bought using a food delivery app and then placed in the fridge. I knew there was something off before I even put it in my mouth when I saw a lot of liquid beneath the food that shouldn’t be there. The second I placed it in my mouth I knew immediately something was very wrong; I spit it out immediately and rinsed thoroughly. Only then did I sniff the food and realized there was something in there that is not meant to be ingested. Now I would like to know what the substance is. The reason I’m posting about this here is it seems there are some people here who are knowledgable about this as I came across this related thread on a Google search: However, in my case I don’t think this is enough evidence to suggest my wife was trying to poison me so I think it may be jumping the gun to file a police report at this stage and potentially develop a huge rift between my wife and I. Initially I did call the police thinking they could help get the substance tested but after a brief discussion they ultimately recommended I call a poison control center. So I did that but after I told them I ingested minimal if any of the substance and wasn’t showing symptoms, they said that testing for food samples will have to be done at a lab. I’ve placed the food in zip-locked bags. For the moment I’d just like to get this substance tested to see what it is. I live in NYC. Would getting it tested at a lab really rack into the thousands? In any case which lab(s) would you recommend for this? Particularly any open on the weekend so I can get it tested asap. Otherwise if not getting the food tested at a lab what would you recommend?