'We feel stuck': Toronto couple pushes for bylaw to control smoke-spread from neighbouring homes

Living in their Toronto home, Taes Leavitt and Peter Katz pictured a bright future in their unique space, on the end of a three-unit townhome.

That was until they started battling cigarette smoke, which they say is seeping in from a neighbouring unit.

"It smells a little bit like an ashtray," says Leavitt, who bought the home nearly 10 years ago. "There was a point when I would feel it in my lungs. My eyes get itchy and watery, I get headaches just being in here."

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The smoke-spread started in recent years and has gotten worse, she says. Leavitt says it became so dense that the couple spent thousands of dollars on air purifiers and monitors to track the level of unsafe particulate matter inside their home.

The monitors report zero if conditions are safe and more than 200 for conditions considered unhealthy.

"I literally get notifications and it literally says, 'Time to leave your house,'" says Katz.

Homeowners on both ends say the cigarette smoke is coming from the person in the middle unit. CTV News tried to speak with the person in the middle unit, who only said that she doesn't smoke inside the home.

Marco Martins owns the unit on the other end and also deals with smoke-spread. He has spent thousands in retrofits to improve the air quality and reduce the smell of smoke in the unit.

"It's a very tough situation," said Martins, "It's the least of our problems in these days but it's also something where if you're living in a property day-to-day, how do you take on someone else's habit?"

According to the World Health Organization, "There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke."

The WHO reports second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer, and kills around 1.3 million people prematurely every year.

While second-hand smoke is a known health concern, there is little in the way of protecting people in certain situations. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act prohibits smoking in a car with someone under the age of 15 or within nine metres of a patio or hospital entrance.

There is some support for tenants or people living in a condominium, but very little support for homeowners who share a common wall.

Katz and Leavitt are now lobbying the City of Toronto to create a bylaw to help address the health of homeowners.

"The laws protect people (so they) can do what they want in their own homes right, but when that then violates somebody else's rights then I think that's where it's a problem," Katz said.

The couple feels the onus should be on the smoker to prevent the spread of cigarette smoke from seeping into a neighbouring home.

They have produced a multipage document for the mayor and city staff to review, which is expected to arrive on desks this week.

It includes data from the couple's home monitoring devices, multiple health studies and documents from a case in Australia.

A recent tribunal in New South Wales deemed cigarette smoke drift from a neighbouring unit a "nuisance and hazard."

Brenton Pittman and his wife brought the case forward.

"You're living in this environment (that) could shorten your life out of your own control," said Pittman. "Should legislation be made? Most certainly."

The case has grabbed international headlines.

"And the reason why I'm happy to do these interviews is because my wife and I have got the ability, the financial ability, to go to court. We've got the administrate skills to do it and we're resilient," said Pittman, understanding it's a time consuming and costly process.

Pittman notes he had great support from Cancer Council New South Wales "because they are getting saturated with phone calls from the public, 'What do I do? How do I get out of this?'"

Health advocates and organizations have worked tirelessly for years to help people quit smoking, but also to draft legislation that will support the health and well-being of non-smokers. But it hasn't come quickly.

"Second-hand smoke spread is one of the remaining issues left in tobacco control," said Lesley James, director of health policy and systems for Heart and Stroke Ontario.

James says it's one of the hardest addictions to overcome.

"Canada was a leader at one point, we were the first country to ban smoking on airplanes to protect bystanders," she said. "But this area of second-hand smoke in dwellings remains a large gap across Canada, and in particular in Ontario where we have a lot of high-density, multi-unit dwellings."

Hoping Toronto will impose a bylaw before they have to take matters to court, Katz and Leavitt say the entire process has been draining.

"I get upset about it, it feels really frustrating … we own this beautiful space, and it should feel safe. It should feel good to come home to," Leavitt said.

"We don't want to sell," she added. "It's a horrible time to sell, we love it here, and … we don't really want to sell a house that smells like smoke. How could we do that in a good conscience?"

It's troubling for a family who don't want to disrupt their neighbours, but also want to live comfortably in their own home.

"It feels very upsetting, we feel stuck. It really feels stuck and scary," Leavitt said. "I'm trying to get pregnant. I don't want to have a baby in here. When we do have a baby, if this is still a problem we'll move. I couldn't leave a baby sleeping in a cradle with this smoke, it's not okay."