Cold Wave and 'Homebound Smoking'? ... Pain for Non-Smokers

"During Winter and Rainy Days, Indoor Smoking Increases Leading to Interfloor Smoking Damage"
Neighbor Relations Center and Others Should Also Have Authority to Mediate Interfloor Smoking Disputes

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyun-joo] As the morning temperature in Seoul drops below minus 10 degrees Celsius, cases of complaints about secondhand smoke damage are emerging amid the recent cold wave. This is because more people are smoking indoors without going outside as the weather gets colder.

Cha Sang-gon, director of the Housing Culture Improvement Research Institute, explained on the 16th, "Looking at the distribution of complaints related to inter-floor smoking, indoor smoking tends to increase significantly during cold winter days or rainy days," adding, "This is because it is not easy to move around compared to the pleasant summer weather."

Secondhand smoke, along with noise between floors, has been a consistent problem. According to data submitted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to Min Hong-chul, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of cases last year where residents of apartment complexes complained about inter-floor noise and secondhand smoke and the management entity conducted investigations to verify the facts was 43,379. This represents an increase of about 25% compared to the previous year (34,605 cases).

According to the current Apartment Housing Management Act, when complaints about inter-floor smoking or noise are received, management office staff can recommend stopping the noise and smoking, but they cannot enforce it. This is because legally restricting what happens in private homes is not possible.

In particular, solutions for inter-floor secondhand smoke are still far off. While inter-floor noise is a conflict between neighbors caused by noise in private spaces, a consensus on the seriousness of the problem has been established, leading to the creation of organizations such as the Neighbor Relations Center that can mediate disputes. On the other hand, there is no organization yet to help resolve conflicts caused by inter-floor smoking.

Director Cha said, "Compared to inter-floor noise, which has been widely publicized due to issues like neighbor assaults and murders, conflicts over inter-floor smoking have not been well known, so no measures have been introduced yet," adding, "From the complaints we receive, the number of complaints about inter-floor smoking is almost comparable to those about inter-floor noise."

In this situation, the number of people complaining about damage caused by inter-floor smoking is increasing. According to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, complaints about inter-floor cigarette smell (secondhand smoke) received through the National Sinmungo in 2020 were 2,844, an increase of 19.2% compared to the previous year (2,386 cases).

Director Cha said, "It is difficult to create a separate dispute mediation organization for inter-floor smoking conflicts, so the system should be improved by granting authority to resolve disputes related to inter-floor smoking to organizations such as the Neighbor Relations Center or the inter-floor noise management committees within apartment complexes."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.