How worried should I be about secondhand smoke and Covid-19?
February 6, 2021 2:05 PM   Subscribe

My neighbors keep smoking and I can smell it. Is it unsafe for me to be outside while they do that?

I live in an apartment complex. I used to have a shitty next door neighbor who would deliberately go outside to sneeze and cough and smoke on our shared patio area, but he's gone. I rarely go out unless I have to, so sometimes I try to go outside on my patio. I live on the ground floor.

However, the upstairs neighbors--I think, I can't really see them from where I am but I'm guessing that's who's doing it--are semi-frequently smoking both kinds of cigarettes (regulars today, pot most of the time though) when I try to go outside. I can't see clouds of smoke but I can definitely smell it. My guess is that they are doing it through possibly an open screen door so that I can smell it (I assume I wouldn't be able to through glass because I don't smell it once I close my door), but I don't hear them outside walking around/talking.

Either way, early in the pandemic I read that getting Covid from secondhand smoke was a possibility, what with the droplets, etc. I literally can't even see these people and I'm not exactly close to them physically, but if they're putting their smoky droplets in the air....I get fed up and feel like I have to go back inside on a good day for my own safety. I haven't been wearing a mask out on my own patio when no humans are within any kind of feet of me right now, but I'm not sure if that would help with literal air anyway.

Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone's see anything lately on how much of a risk secondhand smoke inhalation is for Covid. I can't find anything on the websites Metafilter says to check for health things, and wondered if anyone's seen any updated articles on the topic. Do I still need to go back inside every time someone breaks out their yummy cigs?
posted by jenfullmoon to Health & Fitness (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
To clarify, are you worried that smoke might somehow allow the virus to travel further / survive longer in the air than it otherwise would?
posted by jon1270 at 2:28 PM on February 6, 2021


I don’t really have an answer to your actual question, but could you install a fan on the ceiling (like restaurants do) to blow the smoke away from the building/your space (without having to cool you down as well, unless that’s a feature you’d like)
posted by raccoon409 at 2:39 PM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


What I have read is that folks that have had covid keep thinking that someone is smoking because of the damage to their olfactory nerve.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 3:19 PM on February 6, 2021


Response by poster: Sorry, I'll bow out and not respond again, but I guess I need to clarify a few things:
(a) Yes, can I catch it from breathing the same air outside even though "fresh air" because if I'm smelling it, I'm probably inhaling it, right? Plus the air from covid-infected lungs breathing out smoke, etc.
(b) No way to set up a fan on the ceiling, I can't hook anything up to the upstairs patio.
(c) Really sure I haven't had Covid yet because I'm around no one and have had no symptoms. I just grew up with a mom who always lost her shit over cigarette smoke, so I have certainly learned to notice it.
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:27 PM on February 6, 2021


(a) Yes, can I catch it from breathing the same air outside even though "fresh air" because if I'm smelling it, I'm probably inhaling it, right?

I think that line of reasoning may not be right.

Yes, if you can smell their pot smoke, you are inhaling *something* that was in them or near them.

But that's different from saying you are inhaling the thing that gives you Covid. (Or that, if you are, that you are inhaling it in amounts that represent an actual risk)

My understanding is that the risk of getting covid outdoors are pretty small, and are especially small when you are 6 feet away from someone, and are *very very small* when you are, say, 12 feet away from someone. And yet, there are lots of things you can smell from 12 feet away or more. Heck - you can sometimes smell your neighour smoking in an adjoining apartment with all the doors and windows closed, but I don't think anyone has suggested you can get Covid this way.

I think the logical inference you are making "If I can smell it, I am at risk of getting Covid" is incorrect.
posted by ManInSuit at 3:42 PM on February 6, 2021 [10 favorites]


Smell compounds are on whole way way smaller than virus ones. Even with a p100 rated particulate mask you still smell scents. For reference covid is ~257 times the molecular weight of skatole (one of the compounds that make poop smell like poop). Scent and virus transmission aren't a good comparison on whole especially outside.
posted by Ferreous at 3:57 PM on February 6, 2021 [41 favorites]


Nah, you'll be fine.
posted by Rash at 4:00 PM on February 6, 2021 [3 favorites]


I've seen smoking used as an example/analogy of how things people exhale can move around in a room or hang in the air, and I think that does confuse things a bit. But I don't think the intent was to say that if you can smell someone's smoke you're inhaling their droplets/aerosols too.
posted by kite at 5:40 PM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


"Even with a p100 rated particulate mask you still smell scents."

I can confirm. I have N95s and P100s and odors come through pretty much as if I wasn't wearing a mask at all.
posted by bz at 6:05 PM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


"Even with a p100 rated particulate mask you still smell scents."

'I can confirm. I have N95s and P100s and odors come through pretty much as if I wasn't wearing a mask at all.'


Hmm, I agree that smelling something doesn't necessarily mean you're inhaling enough Covid to catch it. BUT the way I can tell I have my mask on right is when I don't smell anything through it. I open a bottle of my stinky sanitizer or vanilla extract to check. When my masks are fit to my face correctly, I don't smell either one bit. This is true with both my N95 and my triple-ply cloth masks. I've also noticed that whenever I'm returning home from the grocery store and I take my mask off in the car, I'm always hit by the scent of something I bought. I find it very reassuring to realize that my mask was blocking it until that moment.

No idea whether the smell of smoke would be enough stronger than my test scents that I would smell that. I just wanted to note that in my experience, regular scents shouldn't make it through well-fit, well-constructed masks. If I do smell my test scents while my mask is on, I adjust the position and fit and try again.
posted by daisyace at 6:21 PM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


I have N95s and P100s and odors come through pretty much as if I wasn't wearing a mask at all.

They’re not fitted properly then. An N95 mask should block most odors; odor detection is the standard qualitative fitting test. With a well-fitted mask, I can’t smell TEMED, which is volatile, small, and olfactorily potent.
posted by mr_roboto at 8:30 PM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


I think odor blocking is an effect moreso of organic vapor cartridges. Particulate filters won't block organic vapors or small molecule scent compounds.
posted by Ferreous at 9:07 PM on February 6, 2021 [1 favorite]


« Older From Concept to Code? Ingest checklist, present...   |   What good is a story without any things I can... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.