Living with a chain-smoking neighbour is already a nightmare and being surrounded by multiple chain-smoking neighbours in a HDB flat is even worse than living in hell. Smoky, hazy, smelly, and choking are daily experiences. It is worse at night when the smokers are having a smoking marathon till the wee hours of the next day. It reminds me of the hazardous haze in 2015, sometimes, we even have to wear a N95 mask to breathe and sleep.
Lose Everything
Not only my whole family and I are forced to inhale toxic smoke 24×7, but we have also lost our freedom, health, finance, and even our safe home! We are contemplating whether to move away if no solution can be found but there is no guarantee that the next new neighbour will not be smoking.
Farewell Fresh Air
The words “fresh air” have disappeared from my dictionary ever since we are stuck with a chain-smoking neighbour. We used to have good non-smoking neighbours, but unfortunately, they have moved away and been replaced by chain-smoking neighbours. We have to constantly close our windows all day just to avoid their chain-smoking drifting into our house. There is little fresh air and sunlight coming to our house and consequently, our house has a stale and unbearable musty smell lingering in the air.
It is worse than Coffee Shop Smoking Corner
It is an understatement to say our house smells like a coffee shop smoking corner, in fact, it is worse than that. At least in the coffee shop, it is an open space and there is better ventilation but our house is like a box without windows. Bad air flow, bad air quality, and a bad living environment to live in.
Everything smells like a Tobacco
It is really hard to remove the cigarette smell in the house. The smell lingers in every corner of the house and makes everything smell like tobacco. Our clothing, bedsheets, blankets, curtains, furniture, and even our food smell like tobacco. Sometimes, I wonder if I am staying in a tobacco manufacturing factory.
Our Lungs are Screaming for Help
Singapore has done a good job with air pollution in open spaces but worse at home. There is not a single law to protect residents from secondhand smoke exposure. It has been such a long-standing issue and even during the Covid period when there were so many people complaining yet, there was still no policy made.
There is not even a single government agency that could offer any good advice or support. We have sought help from all government agencies from A to Z – the town council, HDB, NEA, police, RC, and even MP, but nobody has a solution. Do you believe it?
I don’t know how much longer our lungs can tolerate the toxic pollutants before it develops into lung cancer. The daily worry of health hazards and medical costs is a huge stress. I sincerely hope the Singapore government can do something to stop the chain-smokers. They are really a health hazard in the community, causing harm not only to themselves but also their families, and the innocent neighours.
Mdm Neo SP
Ang Mo Kio, Singapore
Photo credit: Image by atlascompany on Freepik
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