A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization
Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
| Home | Search | About ASH | Why Join | Comment | Email page |
|
Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
|
Conference on Smoke-free Housing Held in CA; ASH Quoted [04/13-2]
Excerpts from: No vacancy for smokers Smoke-free housing debate forces leaders to pit personal rights vs. health concerns
Press Enterprise [04/12/05]
Mara Levi hates secondhand smoke.
The 43-year-old Hemet resident says she suffers when neighbors light up and smoke drifts into her apartment through porous walls. A few whiffs, she says, leave her short of breath and fearing an asthma attack.
"Your home is supposed to be your refuge," Levi said.
Complaints like Levi's have fueled a campaign, with California on the forefront, to create smoke-free housing, a drive that highlights the health risks posed by secondhand tobacco fumes.
Cities and individual landlords are warming to the idea of smoke-free housing for its health and cost benefits. More people are becoming aware of the dangers of secondhand smoke and are getting used to smoking bans in public places. Landlords like the diminished fire risk and lessened damage to units.
"This issue about offering smoke-free choices in apartments is the next wave in a major public policy issue around reducing exposure to secondhand smoke," said Paul Knepprath, spokesman for the California Lung Association.
On Thursday, a coalition of health agencies and community organizations will hold a Los Angeles conference for city council members, landlords, lawyers and health advocates to push for groundbreaking laws requiring nonsmoking sections in apartments, condominiums and senior housing throughout the state.
Smoke-free housing rules can prohibit lighting up inside or outside, or in both places, according to landlords and nonsmoking groups.
As with restaurant smoking bans, Knepprath believes smoke-free housing will start with a few communities and then spread.
"It is very definitely a trend," said John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, a national anti-smoking organization.
In Thousand Oaks, the government has already stepped in. The Ventura County suburb is the first city in California to require that one third of all new, publicly funded housing be smoke-free.
Health Concerns
Nonsmokers' groups and health officials cite numerous studies that have found secondhand smoke increases a person's risk of lung cancer and heart disease. At least 38,000 people are estimated to die from the effects of secondhand smoke every year.
An estimated 96 million Americans have a chronic health condition that makes them especially sensitive to smoke, Banzhaf said.
Esther Schiller, a conference organizer and director of the Smokefree Apartment House Registry in Granada Hills, said her organization is overwhelmed by calls from people asking about smoke-free housing.
But, she said, it takes time for awareness to translate into action. As of Tuesday, 115 out of the 4,000 people who were invited had signed up for the conference, she said.
"This is the first conference of its kind in the nation," Schiller said. "A lot of people have never thought about this issue."
Some landlords have already adopted nonsmoking rules. Kenneth Hansen banished smokers from his rentals in Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley three years ago after reading about the issue in a trade magazine.
Hansen said the prohibition saves him money because smoking damages carpeting, furniture and fixtures. It also saves time.
"You don't have to go down and pick up cigarette butts," he said.
More than two thirds of apartment residents in California would like nonsmoking sections in their buildings and limits on smoking in outdoor areas such as the pool, according to a 2004 survey of 602 apartment residents by The Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing, a project of the American Lung Association of California.
Nine of 10 tenants questioned believed exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful. Among supporters of nonsmoking sections, 84 percent said smoke had seeped into their apartments, the survey found.
Some landlords appear to be listening. This year, the California Apartment Association began offering information on how to create smoke-free areas because of demand from some of its 50,000 members, said Heidi Poppe, the group's research counsel. The association doesn't track how many members have used the new form.
Poppe said advantages of smoke-free housing include lower clean-up costs when an apartment is turned over to a new tenant, and breaks on fire insurance.
Smoke-Free in Norco
After the tobacco industry was hit with lawsuits for failing to warn people about secondhand smoke, association members agreed last year to post signs and hand out brochures on its dangers and other toxins that could be present on the property, Poppe said.
Randall W. Lewis, executive vice president of Lewis Apartment Communities, which is building the complex, expects demand for non-smoking units will grow with time. "This is a trend that will gain momentum," he said.
In Palm Springs, Deborah Somer says smoking neighbors have turned her home into a stinky prison.
"They control your life," said Somer, a retired flight attendant.
After living above a heavy smoker in the Los Angeles area, Somer said she spent six months looking for smoke-free housing before moving into a Palm Springs building that bans smoking indoors. But she said the prohibition isn't enforced.
"If I start asking people to stop smoking, I get into trouble," Somer said.
Legal experts say smoke-weary tenants can file suit against landlords, but have to show that the living conditions are unbearable.
"You can't take a photograph of smoke," Salsburg said. "It's a difficult thing to prove."
Jon Schlueter, a San Bernardino lawyer, defended a smoker in a suit two years ago.
Edward J. Babbitt, who used to live in Palm Springs, smoked a cigar on his patio after dinner almost daily. His former neighbor, Joseph DiPuzo, alleged Babbitt's smoke wafted into his adjacent condominium, bothering him and aggravating his live-in girlfriend's asthma and other health problems.
The case went to an appellate court, which set a high standard for DiPuzio, Schlueter said.
"They said this had to be basically equivalent to a case where there was stench from an animal," Schlueter said.
The lawyer said he couldn't find any other cases in California that dealt with secondhand smoke. DiPuzo's suit, which was eventually settled, didn't result in a published decision and thus wasn't precedent-setting, he added.
"Any lawyer who wants to bring or defend a lawsuit of this kind is entering undiscovered country," Schlueter said.
'More Than Far Enough'
Domkus said prohibitions could be challenged on grounds that smokers are "disabled" addicts covered by the federal American with Disabilities Act. But finding a smoker and a lawyer willing to press such a claim might be tough, Domkus said. Some smokers want the marketplace to regulate smoking, he said.
"Things have gone more than far enough," Domkus said.
In Thousand Oaks, Mayor Claudia Bill-de la Pena said other cities have shown interest in the smoke-free housing policy and hopes it will catch on.
A 2003 attempt to regulate smoking in housing statewide failed. Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael, introduced a bill that targeted apartments and condos, and imposed penalties for violations.
The bill never got out of committee because of opposition from the tobacco industry and landlords, and concerns over liability and enforcement, said Nation, who said he doesn't plan to revive it.
"When you live in an apartment, you have just as much of a right to clean air," Nation said.
Levi, the Hemet resident, agrees. She's moving to another apartment this month.
"I think the time is ripe that this be taken seriously," she said.
| Home Web Page | Search This Site | Learn About ASH | Why Join ASH | Comment on This | Email This Page |