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Comment by _et33 | Hacker News Reader

Great, great! Thanks for being the pioneer, Josefa.

I hope she wins. It's not just marijuana. Perfumes and other chemicals have increased dramatically over the last 10 - 15 years. It has driven some people to suicide: https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/woman-with-chemical-sensitivit...

And in the case of marijuana this is easy to solve by the person smoking, eating or growing the pot. Keep your windows closed, do everything inside, and use an odor and chemical eliminating air purifier. They cost anywhere from a few dollars for the ones you directly exhale cigarette smoke into, to $100 or so for console purifiers, to $400 to a couple thousand for the full home purifiers which use pounds of activated carbon, zeolite, and various other minerals to eliminate multiple chemicals and odors. Plus money on an ongoing basis to change out the filters, though some of the filters allow cheaper exchange when done by the user.

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Yep, same. I was always mostly against legalization not because I think it's some evil drug, but because the smell is absolutely stomach turning to me. In a perfect world, it would be legal, people would be polite, etc. But our society is decidedly impolite. I have to avoid a lot of public parks in my city because they smell like a skunk orgy now.

Still, I'd rather it just be nuisance fines and such than sending people to prison for years.

Escalating fines along with literature on how to remediate. Though for incorrigibles some jail time would be nice. Some people think they are exempt from the law (blowing smoke outside of windows in a complex, when they know the distancing laws).

I fully support the legalization of weed, but also heavy fines and penalties for people who cause a weed smell in public when they are told not to. It’s not hard to detect whose and where the smell is coming from, and moreover, it’s not hard to get all of the benefits and “high” of weed without creating the smell (e.g. edibles).

We let people drink and we let people drive, but no drinking and driving. Similarly people can use drugs like weed all they want because it’s their choice but when they make a bad smell and such it becomes other people’s problem. Get high but get high responsibly

> also heavy fines and penalties for people who cause a weed smell in public when they are told not to

Oooh! Can we do the same for other offensive smells too?

literally anything burning gas comes into question at that point

Many cities have wood burning bans.

That's not about the smell.

Also weird 'ethnic' smells. And homeless people, they frequently smell pretty offensively. Also, if you just went for a jog or something similar and worked up a bit of sweat, you might want to avoid stopping by the corner shop on your way home, you might get fined for being smelly.

Oh, and Steve. He wears this perfume that I find offensive. He should be fined for that too.

If it's a) a really bad smell and b) easy to contain.

We wouldn't just fine people for being sweaty or dirty. But if it someone's house smells like a manure factory or fish market so strongly that it affects the neighbors I think a warning and then fine is fair. Like how playing loud music is ok at a bar or during the daytime, but if it's 3am and your next-door neighbors are elderly you're just being obnoxious and need to wear headphones.

Smoking pot is by far the least expensive form. Inexpect wealthier people already use edibles.

> Yep, same. I was always mostly against legalization not because I think it's some evil drug, but because the smell is absolutely stomach turning to me.

I cannot fathom supporting sending thousands of people to jail every year because I find a smell icky.

That commenter literally said they wanted fines rather than prison time. Your comment is a strawman.

The poster proposed something nonsensical. If marijuana were illegal but the punishment were just fines, a person possessing it can be subjected to a search of their person, home or vehicle. It is a declaration that “I’m humane!! I just think the icky smell should give law enforcement the right to rifle through your belongings to establish how much to charge you for the icky smell.”

“I am against something being legal BUT I also support a fantasy set of consequences that do not align with reality” is a straw man.

Like lol “I think people with the icky smell forfeit their fourth amendment rights but I’m not bad!” is such a silly thing to say.

You do know that we've already been around this circle once with tobacco. Not to mention other "nuisances".

I agree, it’s silly. I personally hate, _HATE_ Acqua Di Gio but I cannot imagine involving the police in any capacity to deal with someone that wears it.

Fake cinnamon scent. Cinnamon candles, the damn pinecones coated with cinnamon. I can't stand it. When I worked at a home improvement store, I hurried through the Christmas area holding my breath to get out to where I needed to be: strapping Christmas trees to the tops of Mini Coopers. If, somehow, a neighbor managed to introduce that nastiness into my living area, I'd go have a talk with them. It would be a heartfelt talk about how I know it's pleasant for them, but it's basically torture for me. I've never been in a situation where an honest discussion of how I realize they enjoy it, but it bothers me to the point of insanity hasn't lead to them happily accommodating my sensitivity. There's godawful people out there for sure, but there's a lot more individuals that just never thought that it might be a problem who are happy to reduce the impact on a neighbor if it's a polite and heartfelt request. If they are just asswads, that's where property management comes in in an apartment or condo. If they're managing to pipe unpleasantness into a free-standing house, then it's time to look at your HVAC system. I've personally never experienced a neighbor's grilling, smoking, burning excrement within a house. The local cows and sewage issues, yes. The neighbors' smells, not once.

I AGREE! I find those cinnamon pinecones to be alarmingly bad, like bad to the extent that it makes me question the owner’s sanity. I think the appropriate response is to organize some sort of intervention with their close friends and family. XD

The poster is against legalization because he thinks the smell is icky.

Said poster is going to have to accept that it's legal and in 20 years no one is going to give a crap about their opinion.

It's just fresh and this is just a way for people to try and enforce their own morality around the use of it.

I completely agree. If the wind is wrong we have to close up our home due to the amount of marijuana smoke that comes in from our neighbors who seem to always be smoking.

It’s a public nuisance, and I’m not biased against the substance in particular; I find BBQ smoke or cigarette smoke equally irritating.

The new "longer lasting" more intense scent laundry detergents are also a problem.

I guess I'm one of those people who likes the smell of my laundry (lavander generally). Is the smell dangerous somehow, or do you find them overwhelming? I know some people can have incredibly sensitive noses (even make careers of it) but I never realised they could be "smelling too much" so it overwhelms them

Thanks for caring enough to be open.

Depending on the intensity these perfumes can cause anything from allergic-type reactions to migraines. At the very least they can be annoying to people with sensitive noses. I'm just annoyed by these scents, though very rarely they can trigger or exacerbate a headache if I'm on the verge of a headache. But others are far more sensitive, or far more on edge (such as chronic migraine sufferers who have to take active measures to avoid triggering a migraine).

Some laundry detergents aren't nearly as bad as others. I don't know if yours is.

One VERY IMPORTANT thing to note is that constant exposure to particular scents (or scents in general) will desensitize your own nose to them. Others don't have to have a particularly sensitive nose to be aggravated by a particular perfume, they just have to not be constantly exposed to it.

Some tips if you're trying to be considerate: 1) Use only as much detergent as you need to. 2) Avoid scented dryer sheets (or avoid dryer sheets in general). 3) Avoid products that advertise "longer lasting scent". 4) Avoid any products advertised along the lines of "odor blast!".

Thank for writing such a thoughtful reply!

Now that you mentioned perfumes, when I enter a perfume shop I get a headache too. I've just not been in one for ages and forgot about the headaches!

I think my laundry doesn't smell too strong (I generally put one pod in), normally without fabric softener, just a water softener (eg Calgon tablets) and just hang dry them afterwards. So, hopefully it's not too strong

As for perfumes, I generally don't even own one, unless it was a present from someone.

Aside: it's fascinating smells can have such a strong impact on people

My neighbor’s dog literally makes me sick. I don’t sleep many nights due to allergies. I agree, nobody should have to suffer health consequences due to neighbors dishygenic lifestyle choices.

Move. It's not a lifestyle choice, and you don't have to live there.

You assume I’ve not actually thought of that? Rent control and life circumstances don't allow me to move. And yes, dogs are a luxury and definitely a life choice. I have no dog because I cannot afford to one. I love dogs as much as anyone. If I owned a home I would have one. But not in my bedroom.

My neighbor grills outdoors pretty often. I'm a vegetarian, and I don't really appreciate smelling the roasting flesh of dead animals. Perhaps this woman is onto something.

Right on. They can use an indoor grill. And vent it out through the piping on their roof.

A previous neighbors grill was located under their porch awning. We shared a wall and their porch awning vented directly into our microwave and range's rooftop vent. Whenever they grilled it flooded our unit. Dangerous pollution regardless of the smell. If we turned on the vent to prevent the intake it created negative pressure in our home and pulled their glade plugin scents through the wall.

turn the vent on and open a window on the opposite side, that will neutralize the negative pressure.

Our unit was too small. And with the shared wall smells and smoke would pump out the attic vent on the opposite side of the unit where the other window was. This was especially bad when they had parties at their place and the smoke from cigarettes and vapes literally surrounded our entire unit.

The previous tenants at the neighboring place had considerately placed their grill in the lawn area. And never had parties.

And this is how you know this woman should lose.

You're complaining about the smell of grilling. The other poster is complaining because they're vegan and they don't like the smell of cooking meat?

At some point people are just going to complain because they don't want to be a decent neighbor and just deal with it.

The neighbor is firing up the grill because they enjoy grilling.

And people are playing bass thumping party music at midnight because they enjoy partying. Why the heck should that be unlawful but outdoor grilling shouldn't be?

Because presumably the grilling is not happening at midnight and even if it is occuring at odd hours, it's not interfering with a household's ability to sleep.

If the noise is bothering them they can just use earplugs.

...

Basically there are plenty of arguments to be made on why my fist swinging really isn't a problem for your nose.

Be considerate. If you can't be considerate in advance (because you don't realize it's a problem), then try to find a reasonable solution when a neighbor tells you it's a problem.

The question is where do you draw the line? Hypothetical: the smell of flowers makes me sick, it's possible to garden indoors. I want you to remove your outdoor garden and grow your flowers indoors only. Is that fair?

If a neighbor comes and tells me my grilling is a fire hazard, we'll talk about it.

If they tell me they don't like the smell, quite frankly I don't give a shit.

But here's the thing. I used to live next to a neighbor who would a few times a year be noisy past the point of reasonableness. I never once complained to them about it. Why?

It was birthday parties for their children, they were having fun in the backyard, yes, past dark as well.

At some point being reasonable doesn't mean zero tolerance. And sound is disruptive in a way that smells are not.

If this woman doesn't want to smell marijuana, she can close her windows and purchase a few air purifiers.

Earplugs are uncomfortable and interfere with hearing your alarm go off. It's not raw sewage. It's a grill. It's occuring during normal waking hours. There's an extent to which you have to deal with the fact that you're not the only person for 30 miles. I've got no sympathy.

The right to swing your fist/fish ends at my nose. Decent neighbors don't create nuisances.

The only interpretation of this post that isn't a clear strawman is that you're implying smells are akin to physical violence.

vegetarian, but thanks for playing.

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