Hi everyone, I’m using New PurpleAir sensor to track neighbor smoke intrusions (3-4 x’s a week) for future lawsuit as after three years their continuous BBQ smoke is causing health issues. I spoke to a few legal folks and also a couple reps from Southern California AQMD and they recommended I track all smoke instrusions with PurpleAir sensor. Just wondering if others have had similar cases or issues with their careless neighbors. Any comments appreciated.
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I found this sensor to track something similar. We get smoked out routinely (3-4night/week) for 4-12 hours at a time, for the last three years. No local ordinance applies apparently, it’s ok to smoke out your neighbor!
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Hello, Have you found any consultant where you can send data to?
We had a spike last night from neighbors fire while all other local sensors were low/avg. I think the challenge is proving that the levels you see are actually harmful and a nuisance. You need to be able to prove this to local government for it to go through municipal court. An expert opinion would be best.
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Wow, your situation sounds worse than mine. So far my sensor is working well and collecting the data but it would be great if it also captured screenshots or similar at the highest peaks so it’s easy to pass along to others. My local codes in Southern California are quite weak as well as I haven’t found any that focus on residential use.
Good morning @DontSmokeMeOut, to your question, i’m in southern california and I talked with a rep from the SCAQMD and he said he’d look at but not sure if they’re going to provide anything formal as they only deal with business and industrial related air quality issues but still worth a shot. After talking with a lawyer friend, I need at least 60 days worth of data to show trends and behaviors. I’m taking screenshots of every occurance and so far getting really good data…on multiple occurances the smoke intrusions are registering at over 700 PM 2.5! Not good for me but great for my case!
Oh, I was going to mention, regarding smoke removal and after trying various soltuions the most effective one so far is running (3) blower fans to deflect some of the incoming smoke and to also cycle air through my apartment. With (3) blower fans I cans get the CFM’s around 7000-8000 and get about 50-60 air exchanges per hour. Not sure what your setup is but point the fans outward and then have another window open for intake to pull the air in. I also run (3) air purifiers to scrub the air at the same time. For the most part, I can remove all the smoke order in two hours or less. I know my neighbors below hate the sound and vibration of blowers but they must realize by now their the cause of it.
Not to take sides one way or another, but have you thought about how you’re going to prove the source of the poor air quality? Also about how you are going to prove the measurements are free from tampering - e.g, you didn’t introduce a source of smoke yourself in order to make it seem worse?
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Great points @lucienve and I haven’t thought it through in any great detail. I’m mainly relying on my neighbors’ high level of narcissism and the fact they have previously admitted to causing smoke intrusion a couple years ago and statements from adjacent neighbors. Regarding tampering, good question and one of the reasons I chose PurpleAir since they collect data and store on their servers…I guess if a judge or jury wanted to confirm no tampering they could request direct API source data from PA and correlation to the data I provide…I’m definitely open to suggestions as my goal is to cut down the smoke intrusions from 3-4 times a week to once a week to hopefully reduce the respiratory issues im having. Really appreciate your comments!
Hello, unfortunately we have had vandalism and other harassment by these people… so we have a continuous recording security camera where both the sensor and their fire(s)/smoke (plumes!) are visible. The wide angle camera sees our yard and a little spill over to theirs where they set the fires very near the property line. We plan to have a digital signature to the camera (with timestamp) along with the smoke data to present when it comes to that. These may be quite long 10+ hrs, but for less than an acre of land in suburbia, we have to prove how absolutely ridiculous it is to raise a family under these conditions. We have three Austin airfilters which depending on the unit do 800-1600sq ft with I think 60 air changes per hour (I can’t recall). And now we just dont use our beautiful yard at all anymore. Significant investment on our part- camera, hard drive, install, air sensor, attorney too! Sometimes people just suck. Really hope this does what we need. Good luck.
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I’ll have to purchase a camera as well. Did you by chance recall the camera brand you have? I’ll need something I can mount on my balcony and point downward and hopefullt capture the smoke originating from their balcony below. I don’t think I’ll have enough of an angle to capture the actual grill or whatever their using but thinking if I capture the source should be convincing enough is a courtroom.
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A better way to store data will be to use the API. Saving a graph image will not fly in many cases, so it is much better to save the raw data. You can retrieve historical data for your sensor. If you run into any issues or have any questions, feel free to send us an email (contact@purpleair.com)! We can help with API points and such.
If you’re not comfortable using an API, you could try looking into our Data Download Tool (which still uses the API, but has a much easier user interface) or you can download data directly from the map graph.
If you download from the map graph, be aware that you will be limited in range by the averaging period you have the map set to. For example, 2-minute data will give you the past 2 days of history; 1-hour data will give you the past 2 weeks. I recommend that you change the “Data Layer” (learn how in our Map Guide) to “Raw PM2.5 (µg/m3)” before downloading.
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Great tips and really appreciate it…I’ll tinker with the API and see how far I get. I’ll circle back on this towards the end of December to gather up all data for last couple of months.
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Sounds great! Please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any other questions.
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I just bought a PurpleAir Touch to combat cigarette and cannabis smoke coming up from the apartment unit below me. I live in Toronto, Canada (EST). They’re allowed to smoke but it sure is stinking up my apartment and harming my rescued Golden Retriever and I. I have asthma. Initially my dog and I walked up to my local fire station. The Fire Captain said “Smoke rises so you’re going to get the brunt of that.” So, theoretically, perhaps you could get a Fire Captain to testify or sign an affidavit for you. At least, that’s what I’m thinking. (What’s really impossible to track yet equally tricky is Vaping vapours!) I bought the PA Touch to “prove” that the smoke is indeed tied to my neighbour’s presence and monitor it’s removal I hope. This isn’t a spurious connection. It’s causation. The more data I have the better off I believe I’ll be. Sadly, it’s gonna be a slow process (many months to prove) but I’m now getting nose bleeds and my lungs and heart are bothering me because of all the second hand smoke so I’m digging in. I love our apartment and don’t want to move. I talked with a university prof in British Columbia last night. He said he and his wife had to buy a house because of a condor neighbour’s relentless smoking despite it being illegal in the building! (His wife also has asthma.) It’s very sad that getting smokers to stop is such a tough dragon to slay. We really are up against a very nasty pair: Addiction and cigarette/cannabis smoke (vaping). The authorities refuse to do anything here in Toronto despite all the research showing how toxic this smoke is to the health of All living creatures. He said it’s the number one global health hazard. Hope some of this info helps. I’ll be watching others’ posts to learn as well.
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Hey@Sleuth:I feel for you, the cigarette smoke is a tough one to address in many aspects. The PurpleAir sensor will be good to collect the data and I’ve found taking screenshots of the smoking events are quite impactful to others when they see. Probably not going to mean much to a judge in a court setting but I’ve gotten the attention of our local health department. Yet to be determined what and if they’ll consider any local code changes but all these public officials keep talking about climate change and air quality so I’ll keep pushing until they understand the impact…I guess one silver lining in your case is if you can get a few photos or video of them puffing away then maybe that helps with causation.
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