Setting: modern day
Google turned up generic information (pages from Medline, etc.). My character (20's, female, overweight and generally depressed and neurotic, neither eats well nor exercises) is exposed to kerosene fumes because her mentally ill housemate (50's) uses kerosene as a lotion - applies it to her legs and has been doing this for decades (subject to change if research can't support it) before my character finds out. The day she does, she breathes in the fumes for 30 minutes to an hour - complains about the smell, but doesn't move out. Around dinnertime, the housemate walks in the bedroom my character is in and dumps herself on the bed to watch TV. The room has an electric fan, the windows are closed, and only the door to the dining room is open.
They've been living in the same house for more little more than 2 decades, but my character's reclusive and oblivious enough not to notice a lot of what goes on. In case it means more exposure, they started sleeping in one bed for the past few months. And will still be sleeping together. They turn on the air conditioner occasionally.
How much kerosene fumes should be inhaled before my character gets poisoning? Is it possible to get poisoned through secondary means (say the housemate props her kerosene-coated legs on the pillow my character lies on or hugs when she's sleeping?)? Does kerosene stop emitting fumes, and how long before this happens?
