Safety regulations needed for noisy generators spitting out poisonous fumes

IS THERE a general lawor by-law governing the use of generators during load shedding?

We live in an upmarket townhouse complex. The 11 homes are all doublestorey, built on between 840 and 900m2 properties and all set 5m apart.

A neighbour to our right has a thundering generator, set in his garage, that emits heavy carbon-monoxide fumes through an ersatz pipe in his garage wall (obviously well-below the parapet and house roof) and into a sitting room and upstairs bedroom. (Upon appeal, this neighbour is to graciously remedy this awful situation during this week.)

The neighbour on our left-hand side has a state-of-the-art, reasonably silent generator, where the carbon-monoxide fumes are lifted above his garage flatparapet roof (but below the roof of his house) through an art deco stainless steel pipe with blow-lid, which when open (during the operation of the generator) blows its toxic fumes into our house and across our decks. (Just as one would experience when sitting behind a “dirty” diesel truck for two hours on a long trip through the Karoo.)

I know this neighbour will be empathetic and do the same when approached with the plight of his generator fumes. Please note that both exhaust pipes are set to face our house and not towards the owners’ own homes! And this for two hours at a time and the horror of the possibility that this is to go on for five years.

And so for two hours of beautiful winter sunshine today (as at other times of load shedding, day and night), our house has been filled and fouled (more so in certain rooms) by poisonous fumes from the generators on either side of our house.

Feeling slightly “car sick” and nauseous from the fumes (my husband experiencing a scratchy throat), we had to abandon the outdoor deck and our restful and clean space on our own property to find refuge indoors, only to experience the house polluted by the smell of exhaust fumes.

This is a dangerous health hazard, so the relevant City and town health departments need to urgently inform the public of the regulations governing the use of generators, and thus the legal aspects relating to safety measures designed to protect all from the toxic gases emitted – and to be seen to enforce these regulations. Shan Bradbury