Lung Health News, Fall 2007 / Winter 2008
Ever since a smoker moved into the apartment below, Marilyn Gold can barely breathe. She has asthma and after only a month of regularly inhaling the secondhand smoke, her health has drastically deteriorated. Gold has been to the doctor three times in the month since the new tenant arrived because she can’t get her asthma under control.
Before now, the chronic lung disease never bothered her or kept her from doing what she wanted to do. She was an avid tennis player who stayed active. Now she can barely walk up the stairs, let alone play tennis.
“Asthma never changed my way of life until now,” Gold says. “I just want to be able to breathe clean air in my own home. Instead, I’m being bombarded with tobacco smoke 15 hours a day.”
Gold lives in Beverly Hills, where rent control makes smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing problematic. In cities with rent control, landlords cannot make retroactive rules. So any ban on smoking would have to have been included in the original rental agreement.
“I understand why there are concerns about adding new rules,” Gold says. “But I don’t think that should include secondhand smoke now that we know for sure it’s a toxic air contaminant. We can’t allow people to poison their neighbors.”
Last year, the California Air Resources Board officially identified secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant that can cause serious illness and even death. Secondhand smoke is a complex mixture of compounds produced by burning tobacco products. It contains benzene, arsenic, and many other deadly chemicals. It has been linked to a variety of health risks, including asthma, sudden infant death syndrome, low birth weight, breast cancer, increased lung and nasal infections, and heart disease.
ASSOCIATION ADVOCATES FOR SMOKE-FREE MULTI-UNIT HOUSING
Smoke-free housing is the new frontier in California’s ongoing effor t to protect the public from the health dangers posed by secondhand smoke. The American Lung Association of California’s Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing is on the forefront of this issue, working in communities around the state to protect those living in multi-unit housing, where smoke can easily drift from one apartment or condominium to the next.
Smoke-free multi-unit housing is a significant issue in this state, where 31 percent of California’s housing stock is multi-unit residences, according to the 2000 Census. In Los Angeles, more than 60 percent of residents live
in apartments.
Californians overwhelming support smoke-free housing. In a statewide survey of California renters commissioned by the Center, 69 percent favored
requiring all apartment complexes to set aside nonsmoking sections.
Local policies addressing smoke-free multi-unit housing have been passed in 17 California cities and counties. While some of the regulations are stronger than others, it reflects a strong movement toward protecting people from the deadly effects of secondhand
smoke at home.
The strongest smoke-free housing policy was passed in Temecula in May. It requires landlords to designate 25 percent of their units as nonsmoking in all new and existing multi-unit residences with 10 or more units. The nonsmoking units must be separated from the other units to the maximum extent possible.
The city of Calabasas is also considering a more health-protective smoke-free housing policy. A recent poll conducted on behalf of the Center found widespread support for smoke-free apartments in that city. By a 67 to 25 percent margin, voters in Calabasas favor a law that would require smoke-free sections in apartment buildings. Similar support exists for a law that would require entire buildings to be smoke-free in apartment complexes with more than one building.
“This kind of consensus support for a public policy is very encouraging,” said Kimberly Weich Reusche, director of the Center. “It shows that the vast majority of Californians don’t
want to be exposed to secondhand smoke, especially where they live.”
