Heat and Smoke

I hate secondhand smoke.  A lot.

Personally I don't care if people want to smoke.  It's not my business.  It's really harmful to your health and there's a lot of side effects, but I really don't care.  Until it affects me.  I choose not to smoke.  I shouldn't have to suffer the consequences because you (random third person you, not you the reader) decide you want to smoke.

The cigarette smoke used to come in through the vents in our apartment, usually the bathroom, sometimes the fuse box in the hallway.  It was like the polluted air was being pumped into the room and it was awful.  We were just stuck in it -- we couldn't leave every time it started to come in (which was like every hour).  This is our home.  Where are we supposed to go?  I used to walk around with a heavy duty dust mask on which was not pleasant.  I know a lot of smokers (from news articles) would say to just get an air filter, but we have multiple air filters.  It got so bad in the bathroom that we would clean the small bathroom air filter and it would immediately start buzzing again that it needed cleaning.  Terrible.

Lately, the smoke has been coming in through our heating unit.  The only explanation we can think of is that a neighbor downstairs is smoking on the patio.  I hate it because our entire living room becomes off limits but at the same time it's also hard for me to complain about this because I always say smokers should go outside so they don't end up pushing their poison in through the internal vents and this person is probably smoking outside.  So it's exactly what I always said neighbors should do to be good neighbors.  Except it's now in our apartment and I'm stuck in the bedroom.  (Which is fine, since, really, I should be asleep and I can read on my Kindle for iPhone, yay Kindle.)  If this person is smoking outside now, clearly neither time of day nor winter weather fazes them.  Something to look forward to all winter?  Or maybe the reason it is so strong in our living room is because the person is standing in the doorway of their apartment because they are cold and that's why it's just coming straight in without even dissipating into the air?

Anyway, does anyone have a magic solution to remove cigarette smoke from the air?  I always ask but I could really use one.  If not that, any recommendations for smoke-free rental buildings in NYC?