Renter’s Advice and Resources

You’ll want to clean your apartment on a regular basis in order to eliminate odors. Depending on your neighborhood and the climate where you live, it might not be an option to just throw open the windows and doors to air the place out. There are also a number of problem spots that you can […]

When choosing an apartment, diligent renters pepper landlords and real-estate agents with questions about square footage, amenities and security deposits. However, few renters consider the air quality in potential apartments. Most of us don’t think about the quality of the air we breathe at all — until we begin to suspect that the air in our apartments might be making us sick. As we learn more about how air quality affects common diseases like asthma and with new concerns about “sick building syndrome” in office complexes, more and more people are starting to take air quality seriously.

Second-hand smoke (also called environmental tobacco smoke or ETS) is a health risk for everyone, and particularly for children (who become very susceptible to developing asthma or respiratory infections when exposed to smoke) and the elderly. It’s within your power to quit smoking if you’re a smoker, choose to live with only non-smokers, and ask your guests to smoke outside if they must. But what if your neighbors are smokers? Even if they smoke outside, the smoke might migrate into your living space through cracks around doors or windows or in ventilation system, posing a threat to your health. So what rights do you have when it comes to protecting yourself against second-hand smoke? Read on for more information about the dangers of second-hand smoke and the ways you can protect yourself.