01/06/2016

Indoor smoking/drug use continues to be a problem in Building E of the South 67 Condos again today.  So far it hasn't gotten too strong yet, but it has gotten stronger in toxicity level than it did yesterday.  Regardless, the level of pollution still is an improvement from what it has been over the last month & I think we're getting some progress on getting it resolved (until Sunday I'm guessing; they're always the worst as far as pollution toxicity level & I'll be surprised if it's any different this Sunday).  So far I haven't had to use the respirator since while the toxicity level has been slightly higher, it hasn't been lasting for very long.  If the trend continues where keeps getting lower & lower, I might not have to continue doing this logging of the pollution anymore & might even be able to turn my gas back on to be able to use the heater via central air before I move.

Health problems from indoor pollution today:

• Blurry Vision
• Chest Pains
• Coughing
• Dizziness
• Headaches
• Migraines
• Nausea
• Ringing Ear
• Sore Throat

UPDATE:  I ended up having to go to bed ill again due to severe dizziness that was sapping my energy about 2:40 PM.  While there was some pollution in my unit coming from other units (particularly in my home office), I don't think it was a playing the main factor in causing the illness that forced me to bed.  I more expect the fact that I've been severely dehydrated the last couple days may have been the primary reason for the dizziness.  While I'm certain heavy coughing on pollution will cause some pretty severe dizzy spells, I think the dehydration may have played the primary role in having to lay down for a while this time.

UPDATE:  Went to cook some hamburgers about 8:30 PM, decided to risk dragging pollution from other units over to mine through the central air by turning on the fan (along with cracking a window) to try & force out smoke from cooking the hamburgers since the last few times the smoke cooking them stayed around in my unit for a few days because I didn't want to take that chance; remaining smoke & residue from whatever you're doing can be as debilitating as secondhand pollution from other units if it gets strong enough, if not more so considering it's more direct.  When I first turned it on, I was expecting to get blasted with pollution, but I didn't smell anything in the beginning.  I thought this was great, maybe the problem is finally resolved & I might be able to turn my gas back on in the near future to use a "normal" heater for a change; of course I was going to wait until after Sunday to see if it actually had been resolved, but things were looking up.

The problem was that I couldn't smell the pollution from the kitchen & living room where I was cooking & eating the hamburgers, however I could definitely smell it when I went into my bedroom & home office.  It wasn't strong enough to cause a big problem without central air running, but it became a much bigger problem when I turned on the fan to blow out the smoke from the hamburgers I was cooking.  When I realized my bedroom & home office were getting hit with that pollution coming through the vents, I hurried to turn off the fan on my central air so no more of it would be getting pulled through the vent.  This is exactly why I try to avoid using central & haven's really been able to freely use it beyond perhaps the first 3 to 5 months of living here (and I've been here for over 2 years).

I finished cooking the hamburgers & cleaning up, then went back to the home office after I finished eating to do a few things on the computer; while the pollution wasn't as bad as it was while I had the fan going on my central air, there was enough left in the office from while I had it running (that pollution comes through the vents regardless, it's just much worse while I have it running).  The pollution was bad enough that I had to put on my respirator pretty quickly after entering the office.  I took it off for a moment to scratch an itch on my face, had it back on in under a minute.

So while the pollution from other units may be tolerable while not running central air, it definitely isn't while I have it running.  Before I attempt to turn the gas back on again, I'm going to have to determine whether the problem is resolved or not so I'm not bringing that health issue over to my unit from others.

UPDATE:  Ended up going to bed ill again about 10:45 PM from a migraine I was getting from heavy coughing on the pollution; whether the pollution that was causing that was from the cooking or came from other units is up for debate, however I expect it was from other units considering it hitting me the hardest while I was in the home office.

I didn't manage to get to sleep however, a pizza delivery guy ended up ringing my doorbell about midnight asking me if I ordered a pizza.  Seems he either wrote down the address wrong or the guy that ordered the pizza told him wrong, since he somehow wrote down E34 & there's no third floor in these buildings.  The guy kept trying to call back the customer to get the correct address to deliver the pizza, but the guy wasn't answering.  I told him he should try doing a reverse phone number search on whitepages.com to see if he could get his address (sometimes you can, but likely it's unlisted).

After a laid back down in my bed, I actually pieced together what happened & came up with a way he could have figured out who the customer was, but by then the guy was already gone.  The "34" was actually part of the physical address for Building E of the South 67 Condos, so he had the right building.  The guy gave me a name & I realized that was likely his last name.  I determined the customer was the new guy in E21 after looking at the name tags on the indoor mailboxes.  If I had been a bit quicker, he might have been able to deliver that pizza before taking off; he probably had to trash the pizza since he couldn't figure out which unit the customer had called from & the customer wasn't answering his calls to verify the address.

Originally posted on Facebook 1/6/2016