Nose Pain Due To Neighbour Smoking, Hair In Nose Falling. What Could Be Doing This?

Question: I am a 56 year old woman. 5 feet, 2 inches, about 120 pounds. I am very healthy, with no history of any health issues. However, I live in a large apartment complex in San Francisco and I believe that my downstairs neighbor is either smoking something or burning something that has been coming into my apartment and causing me intense pain way up inside my nose. I have been suffering with this for quite a long time. Recently, all the little hairs inside my nose are falling out and, within a very short period of time, I have lost about 70% of my nasal hairs, on both sides. I am very alarmed about this. I want to know what it is that he could be doing that could be causing this? He does this at night all the time, and is causing me enormous distress.

November 30, 2011
Dear Doctor,

Thank you for your response to my inquiry. Your answer was very helpful, and has pointed me in the right direction as to what I should do next. I will contact my Primary Care doctor for evaluation, and also plan to contact the Department of Public Health in my city.

The problem is that, at this point, I don’t really know what it is exactly that is coming into my apartment that is causing this – ie, what the resident below me is doing, or if it might even possibly be coming from somewhere else in the building (although I am pretty sure it is the resident below me either doing some kind of weird drugs, or even maliciously attempting to harm me. From other things that he has done in the past, I do consider him somewhat of a XXXXXXX person. Maybe I need to get a lawyer…?)

I did want to mention that this situation has been going on for a long time (2 years), and the staph infection that I developed occurred in August of 2010, so it couldn’t possibly be the medication from that which is causing my nose hairs to fall out now. Also, the little hairs in my ears are falling out as well.

QUESTION: You said I should have a blood test to confirm this. Do you mean a blood test to see if there is any kind of heavy metal toxicity?? Or, if this is due to some kind of drugs, would that show up in a blood test as to what kind of drugs they are??

See, if I knew what it WAS then I could form a more reasonable complaint. In the past, I have made complaints to the management here where I live, but I don’t know what it is, so they don’t know what I’m talking about. I don’t even SMELL anything. Most of the time, although sometimes I do smell what I can describe as maybe a burning chemical smell.

That is the problem. In the past this man was smoking marijuana very heavily, and I was able to identify (finally) that he was the one who was doing it, so that finally stopped. But I don’t usually smell anything with this at all, so if it could be identified through a blood test, that would be very helpful.

The same thing is true with going to the Health Department. It seems I would need more concrete information about what it is that is hurting me before I can file any kind of complaint. This has been the whole problem for two years, which is why I have been suffering terribly with it, without being able to say anything, or get any results when I tried.

I even thought at one point, well, maybe it’s just me. But the fact that all my little nose and ear hairs are now falling out, tells me that, no, there most definitely is something real going on here. BUT I REALLY HAVE TO FIND OUT WHAT IT IS!!

QUESTION: The other question I have is, where can I go to have a hair analysis test done?

Thank you so much for your help.

I don't have any more questions, but I just want to thank you for your input. This has really been extremely helpful!! This is a very good service, and I would recommend it to others.