I moved into an amazing apartment a month ago. I was the very first person here. I have this beautiful view, everything is brand new. The day after Thanksgiving, I was relaxing at home and getting ready for bed. I started smelling this horrible, powerful Menthol/ Wintergreen odor coming into my apartment via my bathroom exhaust fan/ vent. It filled my entire apartment. My eyes started burning, my skin on my face began to sting. I felt a little dizzy too. I opened my windows on a very cold night to let out whatever fumes these were. Anyway, I forgot about the issue until (8) days later, it happened again. Exact same time of night, exact same fumes. I felt the same way with burning eyes, sinuses burned, I coughed, I felt kind of sick. Fast forward to today and these fumes have occurred at the same times about (8) days apart each time. They always come into my apartment via the bathroom vent. I looked online and some sites said what I am smelling is the “benzene” process of Meth being “cooked” by my neighbor. I don’t smell cat urine or dirty diapers as some sites suggest but boy do I smell the wintergreen/ menthol odor, it’s very powerful and dangerous smelling, and it’s making everything in my brand new apartment stink. I am one of those law abiding citizens. I don’t like when people break the law, rules, or try to steal from others or lie to others. I was the 1st person in my new building, then this single male moved into an apartment one unit away from me. A few days after he moved in, the fumes began. There is zero drug traffic in front of his place so I know he’s not dealing from home. My question is, Is he a Meth cook? Am I dealing with Meth and am I being exposed to Meth? I’m really afraid, please answer with serious replies. Thanks!
Since this is a real-life medical/legal question, we prefer it go in IMHO rather than General Questions. Moved.
samclem, moderator.
I don’t think you need to know the precise cause of the smell to inform your landlord and request that they investigate.
+1
Tell your landlord right now … this is very bad for the owners … this is very very bad for you …
You might want to mention the nature of your suspicions to your landlord, though, just so the poor guy doesn’t barge in there unwittingly and get himself capped.
Is it possible that your neighbor might instead be smoking menthol cigarettes? Or vaping some ridiculous flavor?
Have you knocked on your neighbor’s door yet to ask him for some sugar?
He’s not the one who knocks.
If you don’t get a good response from the landlord / apartment management you might try visiting the local police station. Better in person than over the phone. Describe what you know. They’ll probably have somebody handy who can tell you whether it’s meth or not.
Make darn sure before you leave that they’re straight about which apartment is yours and which is the suspicious one. Otherwise you may wake up with an M16 in your teeth and a dog gnawing on your leg.
You can always call the non-emergency police line and report your suspicions.
IME, unfortunately too often LEOs are reluctant to act without an identified individual filing a complaint.
Even if they don’t require that, don’t be shocked if, when the cops knock on your neighbor’s door, they oh so helpfully say, “Yeah, we have a complaint from UpHoldsTheLaw, your neighbor.” :rolleyes:
JMHO…Call the police. It helps immensely if you can call while it is happening. I have been on calls like this in the past. People making that crap think they are being smart and will use the bathroom vent fans or even dryer vents to keep the smell out of their apartment. The concern is that many apartments use a common vent/exhaust line for units that share a wall. The last one I went on was the smell of ether, which is very flammable…the idiots cooking were using the dryer vent line and it backed up into several other apartments. We took a gas meter in with us to investigate, (I am a firefighter and this was called in as a “strange odor”), we were getting flammability readings in the other apartments.
Of course the people cooking didn’t answer the door when we knocked, so we moved on. We had a pretty good idea what was going on, so we evacuated the apartments, waited for police and they went up and discovered the meth lab.
This stuff is extremely dangerous to everyone and will coat everything it comes in contact with. This usually means a major clean up by a hazardous material clean up company.
As a side note, there are several ways to make this stuff and only a couple of them produce the dirty diaper/cat urine smell.
Vaping wouldn’t smell nearly as bad, and I find it hardly smells of anything at all. I have to avoid cigarette smokers but not vapers. (I avoid vapers anyway because I don’t want to breathe in something toxic, but it does not smell bad.)
Once every 8 days? :dubious:
Call the fire department and report noxious fumes. They’ll come out and check it out. I’m sure they’ve seen enough Meth labs by now to know what they’re dealing with, and they’ll call the police.
Maybe those were the nights he had some visitor over who smokes something odd.
Besides, how does any explanation fit the timing? Is there some 8-day cycle to cooking meth?
Nice try, narc.
Ahhh, it’s 2010’s-style “Meth Glaze”.
Cooks for a day, spends a week on a bender, thinks 7 days have gone by and he’s on a “weekly” cycle? 
Thank you for all of your responses. I took some of your advice and I called the police. The officer told me to call them back when I start smelling the fumes again and they’ll come out. And yes, I am worried that the officer might tell him, “Hey, your neighbor in APT # so-so called us.” But at this point, aren’t the police just investigating a weird smell? It’s not like I have accused the guy of any foul play just yet. It will be his guilty mind making him think otherwise. It was just him and I in this new building when the fumes first began so he is doing something he probably shouldn’t. I have thought of calling the Fire Dept out but the fire truck, the neighbors coming outside to see it? Total drama. And, once I involve my brand new landlords, I may be seen as a “complainer” if they can’t solve it right away, totally trashing my reputation with them. I hear Meth people are very sneaky and can lie better than most. I ruled out the E-Cig or Vapor Pen theory. Makes no sense that he’s going into his bathroom to smoke those two things. He lives alone. And ppl smoking those will smoke them anywhere, not just directly under a bathroom exhaust fan, trying to get rid of the odor. I ruled out him using minty soap, body wash, lotions, hair tonics, mouth wash, toothpaste all while in the shower area. None of those products would prove to be so strong as to make it across two apartments and wake me up out of a dead sleep. I did entertain the idea yesterday to walk over & say hello. Thought I’d casually mention that I was smelling a “weird odor” coming through our shared bathroom vents, ask him if he knew what it might be?" But I chickened out. I truly doubt he’d be intimidated by me, and it might make matters worse in case he decided to twist my words and tell the landlord I went over and harassed or accused him of something. If he is making Meth for profit, he’ll lie, lie, lie, to keep his business going. And who knows where he just moved from, maybe he was found out at his last location. Dang, sure wish I knew with absolute certainty what I am smelling. 
It wont’ take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that the cops showed up because one of the two people who live there called the cops and the meth guy knows it wasn’t him.