Someone else's fireplace smell, is it harmful?

[LiefDuivel]

Hi! I have two wonderful budgies who are fairly young and healthy. I live an apartment and keep them by the sliding doors since they get lots of light, fresh air, and it has the most noise reduction. It's been beautiful this summer, and i've been very thankful there's been no forest fires where i live, leaving the air quality very good. Because of this, i have been leaving my balcony door open throughout most of the day and evening - but lately i've noticed that in the evening, (my desk is right near by the door) i can smell smoke from someone's fireplace or possibly backyard fire pit. There's no visible smoke, or any signs of the fire in the immediately vicinity, and most likely the smell is being carried on the wind from the neighborhood a few blocks down. I know birds lungs are very very sensitive, we are very careful with anything scent/aerosol/smoke related. Does anyone know if the smell of a distant bon fire/fireplace harmful? I love having the balcony open in the evening, but not if it's a risk to my birds.

thanks!

 

[Shezbug]

It will definitely depend on how much smoke is in the air which unfortunately none of us can actually help with.
If you can smell smoke then there’s smoke particles in the air so it’s not ever good, obviously the higher the amount of stink, the higher amount of smoke particles the more dangerous and damaging the air is for us all.

Is the smoke so bad it’s bothering your eyes or sinuses? Or can you just tell that someone in the area is burning something in a fireplace.
If it’s the second scenario then although it’s not the best it’s also not deadly at those levels here and there, if it’s the first scenario then do all you can to filter your air for your birds so they’re not being subjected to such poor air quality.
My neighbour seems to have a serious addiction to burning things (not just wood unfortunately) and when he gets really bad I notice all my birds sneezing a lot and my sinuses hurt too- I’m now going through 3-4 times more than the amount of filters I used to go through each year- his burning habits are so bad the fire brigade have shown up to check out what’s happening and make sure everyone is ok.

The cleaner the air is the better it is for your bird.