COEUR d'ALENE - A Post Falls tanning salon owner is suing the owner of a neighboring hookah club over fumes - from flooring material.

Paula Rehrmann and her husband Norman Rehrmann, of Post Falls, filed the lawsuit against iHookah Club and owner John R. Hyatt.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in 1st District Court in Kootenai County, said a material called Diamond Clear was applied to iHookah's floor last spring, generating toxic fumes. The lawsuit also claims the hookah bar failed to properly ventilate during the work.

"It's either an extremely stupid or extremely callous thing to do," Rehrmann's Coeur d'Alene attorney, James Bendell, said Friday. "It could be both."

The businesses have been located at River City Plaza at 2600 E. Seltice Way, but the hookah club is now closed. Patrons share flavored tobacco at hookah bars. Hookahs are multi-stemmed instruments for vaporizing and smoking the tobacco.

"Folks need to be careful in how they use potentially hazardous substances," Bendell said.

He said Rehrmann was working at Relax N Tan on April 19, 2014, when workers at the hookah club were applying Diamond Clear. She suffered damage to her vocal cords and lungs, and she is now hyper-sensitive to any chemical fumes, he said.

The lawsuit says Diamond Clear was applied on April 3, 2014, too.

Firefighters were called to the club that day in response to complaints about toxic odors emanating from the club.

The lawsuit said firefighters warned workers to properly ventilate when using the product.

The Rehrmanns are asking for money for medical costs, lost earnings, pain and suffering, lost profits for their business and loss of enjoyment of life.

Mike Miller, the owner of River City Plaza, said iHookah moved out around June 20 of last year. He said the owner was behind on rent a couple months.

"I laid the law down to them," Miller said.

Next thing he knew, people were scrambling late one night to move everything out of the business.

"These people are bad news," Miller said.

He said Hyatt or someone working for him tore out the carpet that existed in the suite and put Diamond Clear on the exposed concrete.

"The odor drifted between the suites," he said.