Second-Hand Smoke From Cancer Center Alarms UES Neighbors

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side building owned by one of the world's top cancer centers pumped white smoke and a sulphuric smell into nearby apartments Wednesday, prompting neighbors' alarm and an FDNY investigation.

Neighbors told Patch it wasn't the first time the Memorial Sloan Kettering tenement building on East 66th Street between First and Second Avenues had engulfed the area in smoke, but a spokesperson for the cancer center said they were unaware of previous complaints.

"Our boiler service company was onsite performing a combustion test, which resulted in white smoke being released through the stack for a brief period of time," said media relations director John Connolly.

"We are not aware of previous complaints and are happy to work with our neighbors to address any issues moving forward."

Firefighters arrived at an East 65th Street building just before 11:15 a.m. Wednesday after receiving reports of a potentially gaseous smell from residents there, officials said.

Smoke eaters exiting the building told Patch the problem was most likely coming from the five-story tenement block on 66th street.

The tenement buildings range from 306-318 East 66th Street and sit adjacent to MSK's Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center on Second Avenue, which replaced the historic 53-year-old Beekman Theater when it opened in 2009.

Alarmed residents of a neighboring East 65th Street building told Patch that they smelled gas and a sulfuric odor. One person said they'd suddenly felt nauseous during a work-from-home virtual meeting.

Neighbor Justin Miller, an editor with New York Magazine, said he tried to report the noxious fumes — which he said have been an issue in the area since June 2021 — to the cancer center on Wednesday.

Miller said the chimney smoke gets trapped against the a tall 65th Street building, which allows a black cloud to form in the shared courtyard.

That cloud brings soot into Miller's East 66th Street apartment next door which collects "on my windowsill, desk, and couch," the editor said.

Wednesday was the first time Miller saw white smoke or smelled a strong, sulfuric smell, so he decided to film the northern wind carrying smoke straight toward an East 65th Street building.

Miller said he's reported the issued multiple times to 311, the Department of Environmental Protection and Council Member Julie Menin's office, but to no resolution.

"I took videos and DEP never asked to see them, and they closed the complaint because they didn’t see the problem the day they inspected," Miller told Patch."It shouldn’t take DEP, FDNY, and multiple neighbors to stop this."

Menin told Patch her office has received previous complaints about the smoke from residents, but that the Department of Environmental Protection inspectors had determined there was no violation, reiterating that MSK had a planned combustion test Wednesday.

"We will continue to monitor the situation," Menin said.

A DEP official told Patch they are planning an investigation Thursday but did not provide further detail.

Outside of East 66th Street, a MSK facilities worker offered a simpler explanation.

"That's carbon — smoke is supposed to come out of the chimney," he said, adding that work was being done to the boiler.

"People get a little freaked out over a little smoke."

The author of this report lives in the area of the Memorial Sloan Kettering buildings.