Passive smoking

[n2o]

I am currently installing central heating in a rented property for the landlord and whilst working in the bedroom over the kitchen on Monday I found myself coughing and feeling light headed. I blamed this on the ropey looking LPG cabinet heater in the kitchen so I suggested to the tenants that as soon as the heating was working this heater should be thrown in a skip. However, later that morning I heard the following "Don't smoke that stuff in hear, get out" and went down the stairs and opened the back door into the rear porch to find a 14 year old boy completely surrounded by thick smoke from the cigarette that he was holding.

According to the locals these people have a reputation for dealing in drugs and last night as I was leaving the 'husband' returned home from work and asked me if their son had been smoking Sh*t in the house again. I explained that I found it difficult to sleep the night before because of chestiness and headaches. Seeing us talking on the pavement, the 'wife' came out looking all concerned so I told her that I didn't like passive smoking. She said that they would all be out tomorrow (today) and I would have the place to myself.

Unfortunately, when I arrived this morning the 'husband' hadn't gone to work and they have all been at home for most of the afternoon. This morning I was installing the external gas pipework, but this afternoon I was working in the bathroom cylinder cupboard at the top of the stairs. When they were in I could smell this sweet sickly fragrance and I developed a headache. When they went out for an hour or so the smell went with them and my headache disappeared. When they returned so did the smell and my headache. I had opened all the upstairs windows and the kitchen door (although they kept closing the door), but this doesn't seem to help much.

I had hoped that our discussion on Tuesday night would have been the end of it, but they are obviously a bit thick or too chilled to be bothered.

Having packed all my gear in the van I asked on leaving if they would be at home tomorrow. The 'husband' wont but the 'wife' will be (I don't know about the son) so tomorrow morning I intend to ask if there will be any smoking taking place before I decide whether or not to stay.

Am I being unreasonable?

 

[jasy]

i am a non smoker but it is THEIR property. They can do what they like in it.

 

[Thermo]

Er, from the sound of it they are not smoking your normal brand of cigerettes. If they are then the son is obviously committing an offence and so are the parents by allowing him to do it. No you arent being unreasonable. If it is causing you such problems then speak to the landlord or make it plain to the occupants that this is what you will do. i know people will come out with various comments on here but its your health so be as unreasonable as you want to be


Thermo

 

[masona]

My mum's has a similar problem with next door neighbour on drugs and they are impossible to deal with, even the police get fed up with them because they don't care. If it was me I would cut my loss, get out and forget them, it's not worth it. My mum has reported them and now they make her life hell. Since then she has move on to better neighbourhood.

 

[n2o]

I don't know what it is they're smoking, but the brand spanking new Myson Fan Convectors that were installed last Friday (and not yet working) are already a darker shade of pale (the Livingroom walls & ceiling are brown).

The place is a bit of a dump, but I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt. Since I discovered that their lad was blatantly smoking (this sh*t) with their consent they have plummeted in my esteem.

I can't help thinking that the (step) father has taken today off work so that he could spend it smoking this stuff purely to annoy me (or am I becoming paranoid). The mother also smokes, but she had told me that she had gone from 20 down to 3 per day.

The hot water cylinder was removed yesterday and the combination boiler should be in and working tomorrow if they are reasonable about this smoking issue. If they are not then they will have to get used to having no hot water.

N2o (still feeling the effects)

 

[n2o]

Obviously, I am glad I don't live next door, but the landlord's cousin does.

I have been there for one and a half weeks now. Last week was bad enough because I had the eight year old son to contend with before and after school. He was obsessed with my tools and was either cutting up lengths of copper tube or attacking things with my cordless drills. I was dreading having to contend with him during the school holidays. I was releived to discover that he is staying with his grandmother, but I would prefer having to deal with him than the present situation. I now suspect that he is at the grandmothers so that the rest of them can concentrate on their smoking activities.

If push comes to shove I could walk away because the landlord is supplying the materials.

 

[planenut]

You've got it all wrong; the eight year old's the dealer (dealers don't "do" it, just make the money); the old grandmother's husband grows it on his allotment, she's supplying it to the lad; he pushes it to the family as when they're out of their trees, he can stay up late and watch videos or play the computer.
Or have I got it wrong.

Couldn't you just turn the central heating vents in on the lot of them? It'll cure your headache.

 

[securespark]

Ask for a payment before you leave. Make it out to be an "interim" but try and wag it so it covers your work so far.

Then tell the landlord exactly why you are not going back. And tell the fuzz, too.

 

[AdamW]

Despite being very anti-smoking, I would say that if this is tobacco then it is a grey area (people can do it in their own house, but at the same time they are paying you for time worked, not time off the end of your life - you deserve a healthy working environment)

However, as it is plainly not a packet of Silk Cut, as I see it you have two approaches: tactful or direct

1) make up some story about "well, I tried it once and it turns out I am allergic to it, I was in hospital for 3 days, the doctors said I was lucky as it could have killed me. Even the slightest smell of it makes me sick. Could you hold off smoking it around the house until I am finished? You will get your hot water a lot quicker if you can hold off."

2) tell the landlord that they are doing it, and you will not work in that environment.

I don't advocate lying, but I would seriously recommend 1) instead of 2). Reason being, despite their claims of "it makes me chilled and mellow", my experience is that people who smoke marijuana get very defensive and even aggressive if they feel someone is telling them what to do. They never see it as being aggressive... however pi**ed people never think they are shouting either. If you go for 2), then there is a good chance you will be aggressively whined at after the landlord has a go at them or threatens them with eviction.

Just to illustrate this point, when I was a teen I found a big lump of resin hidden in my bedroom. Knew my brother smoked it so asked him about it. He thought I was winding him up, but he was very keen to have a look. Turns out that a "friend" of his thought my bedroom would be a good place to stash it when my parents arrived home. As you can imagine I was not best pleased. Neither was he when I threw the whole lump, apparently worth £100 in the Thames. And they got very aggressive when I told them all to p*ss off and get a job. I got the impression I had violated some stoner code. The ducks and geese seemed rather chilled and mellow about the whole affair though

 

[AdamW]

Or as Secure says, get paid and get the funk out.

Yeh, I'd go with that one.

 

[kendor]

Throw the Coshh book at the Landlord it's his responsibility as your employer(albeit temporarily) to make sure you have a safe working environment, I realise it can be hard to quote Health and Safety when you are self employed, always the worry that you may not get anymore work from an individual but you have to weigh up what's more important, health or work from someone who doesn't give a s*it about your wellbeing.

 

[n2o]

Thanks for all the advice. I've had a restless night and can still feel the effects, but I am going back this morning in the hope that they will be co-operative. If not I will carry on to my next job and they can contact the landlord and sort something out.

Thanks again.

N2o

 

[AdamW]

Just thought of a potential problem: you seem to have inhaled enough to affect you, I wonder if you were an athlete at the weekends, would it show up in a urine test? It hangs around in the body for a couple of weeks, imagine the embarassment if you won some event, fastest time in your life, then went for testing and that showed up. I know they are looking for other drugs really, but it would still be a blight on your reputation.

Or even a medical, they do urine testing with those.

 

[Thermo]

Just to back up your argument with the landlord, if he knows about it, and he will once you tell him, he is commiting an offence of allowing his premises to be used for it. If you need anymore advice to throw at him i can give you the chapter and verse on the legislation (being an ex copper does have its uses sometimes!)

Thermo

 

[kendor]

Careful he's an ex copper, he'll have you for smoking the weed, albeit passively