America Cities Outlaw Smoking in Apartments and Parks; Home Owners Associations Ban Smoking in Homes; Colleges Ban Smoking on Campus and Even in Cars

Bloomberg Wants Apartment Smoking Ban in NYC? New Law Hhas Clues

April 18, 2012

The Upshot - New York City residents who are still smokers are an unloved bunch in the Big Apple. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has made it his mission to ban cigarettes from public places, including restaurants, bars, parks, beaches, and even Times Square. And if hizzoner has his way, apartments will be his next smoke-free target.

To be clear, the rule introduced to the City Council doesn't ban smoking in residential buildings, it would simply require that housing have written rules.

According to the Wall Street Journal,

"Bloomberg is proposing new legislation that would require residential buildings to develop written policies that address whether smoking is permitted in both indoor and outdoor locations, including lobbies, balconies, courtyards, laundry rooms and, most controversially, individual apartments. The goal is to alert prospective tenants and owners considering moving into a building about the rules governing smoking."

Of course, New Yorkers know the bigger worry from fellow smoking residents isn't second-hand smoke — it's a fire in the building.

Bloomberg gave his assurance in a press conference that he has no intention of an outright ban, saying,

"We're not trying to ban anything. I've always believed, as you know, that if you want to smoke I think you should have a right to do so. But it kills you."

The mayor certainly puts his money where his beliefs are. He has spent $600 million of his own fortune to end smoking around the globe.

Some Apartments Bar Residents from Smoking at Home

November 22, 2010

AP - No Smoking signs are popping up at some apartment complexes and condos, barring people from lighting up even in their own homes.

And in places where smoking is permitted, tenants and owners are beginning to seek protection from the secondhand smoke they say is seeping into their apartments.

“A lot of the demand is just coming from people realizing that smoke doesn’t stay in one unit,” said Rita Turner, deputy director of the Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation and Advocacy at the University of Maryland Law School. “Buildings are designed to breathe.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say secondhand smoke can cause asthma, respiratory and ear infections, sudden infant death syndrome, heart disease and lung cancer.

“There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke,” the agency says on its website.

Such concerns have led to efforts to ban smoking not only in common spaces of buildings, but also in individual apartments.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a notice last year encouraging public housing authorities to consider smoke-free policies, and many have, officials said. Some private developers also are doing so.

The Alaire, which is in Rockville, Md., lists among its “green” features a saline swimming pool without chlorine chemicals, a solar-powered trash compactor, the use of recycled soda bottles on its roof for plants — and a smoking ban.

“Without a doubt, this has driven far more residents to us than it has detracted,” said Matt Blocher, senior vice president of marketing for the JBG Companies, which own the complex.

Nanny State on Steroids: City Plans to Outlaw Smoking in Apartments

March 25, 2012

Infowars.com - Few argue that smoking is bad for you. However, in Elk Grove, outside of Sacramento, California, government bureaucrats are ready to exploit this fact in order to outlaw people from smoking in their homes.

The Elk Grove city council will take up the ban this week, according to CBS Sacramento. The ordinance would outlaw smoking in all apartments in the city.

CBS quotes people who favor the unwarranted expansion of state power over the individual.

“I think it’s a pretty good idea,” one apartment resident told the television station. “I think it’s harmful to the human body and especially to younger kids who live here,” said another.

CBS notes that the law is uncalled for because “hundreds of apartment complexes in Elk Grove are already smoke-free. Property owners – many argue – have made the move without government intervention.”

The decisions of property owners are irrelevant to the state, though. It will impose myriad laws at gunpoint – no matter how pointless or destructive (consider drug laws) – because that is what government does.

Out of control government invariably runs roughshod over the rights of the individual and property owners. It has done so for so long and with such impunity that many people now think government regulation of human behavior is a good thing.

For Condo Associations, Smoking Ban Hits Home

October 01, 2010

Chicago Tribune - As smoking restrictions become increasingly widespread, smokers find the last place they can indulge freely is at home. Perhaps not for long if that home is a condominium. Associations are passing their own bans, and some include living units as well as common areas.

In Chicago, the 1418 N. Lake Shore Drive Condominium Association recently amended its declaration to prohibit smoking in interior common elements, interior limited common elements and inside the units. Smoking is permitted in a unit, however, if it is restricted to a single room that has been equipped with an association-approved, self-contained air-treatment system that contains the smoke.

Court Upholds HOA Rule Against Smoking in Own Home

November 17, 2006

Outside the Beltway - A Colorado judge has upheld a rule by a homeowners association preventing people from smoking in their own home.

A judge has upheld a homeowners association’s order barring a couple from smoking in the town house they own.

Colleen and Rodger Sauve, both smokers, filed a lawsuit in March after their condominium association amended its bylaws last December to prohibit smoking. “We argued that the HOA was not being reasonable in restricting smoking in our own unit, nowhere on the premises, not in the parking lot or on our patio,” Colleen Sauve said.

The Heritage Hills #1 Condominium Owners Association was responding to complaints from the Sauves’ neighbors who said cigarette smoke was seeping into their units, representing a nuisance to others in the building.

In a Nov. 7 ruling, Jefferson County District Judge Lily Oeffler ruled the association can keep the couple from smoking in their own home. Oeffler stated “smoke and/or smoke smell” is not contained to one area and that smoke smell “constitutes a nuisance.” She noted that under condo declarations, nuisances are not allowed.

While this would seem beyond the reasonable scope of power of an HOA, especially when imposed post hoc on those who bought their homes without any way of knowing this restriction would be put in place, my knowledge of the applicable real estate law is minimal. And I’d be mad, too, if I could smell my neighbor’s cigarette smoke in my own home.

The solution, however, is a head scratcher:

The couple now has to light up on the street in front of their condominium building. “I think it’s ridiculous. If there’s another blizzard, I’m going to be having to stand out on the street, smoking a cigarette,” said Colleen Suave.

So, the neighbors are afraid of smoke coming through the walls but are fine with it in the open? How does that make sense?

Frederick, Maryland, Bans Smoking in Select Areas of City Parks

Lighting up to carry $25 fine; ban enforced during hours park is open and at park events

March 16, 2012

Frederick Gazette - Smokers in Frederick have fewer places where they will be permitted to light up following a law approved Thursday that bans smoking in some areas of city parks.

The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to ban smoking within 10 feet of a playground, at the Carroll Creek Linear Park ampitheater during events, in the fixed seating adjacent to the Baker Park Bandshell and in the seating area adjacent to McCurdy Field. The ban, which takes effect immediately, carries a $25 fine.Alderman Karen Young (D) said the ban will protect children and others from second-hand smoke.

“We have an obligation to lean towards protecting those who can't protect themselves,” Young said. “... We realized we should target our efforts to where children were going to congregate in parks, and where individuals were going to congregate. I think it's a very reasonable compromise. I support it and I hope that those who feel their rights are infringed upon understand the difficult position and tradeoff.”

Alderman Kelly Russell (D) said questions still remain over enforcement.

Joleen Hart, the city's volunteer parks enforcement agent, can issue citations and will monitor the ban. Hart has said her goal is to ensure people follow the law if it is enacted — rather than issue citations.

Outside of event hours, the ban follows the hours the park is open. Roelkey Myers, the director of parks and recreation, said the majority of the complaints about smoking in parks came from Friends of Hospital Park. Frederick Memorial Hospital staff and visitors are frequently seen using the nearby park to smoke because the hospital's campus is smoke-free.

Florida Colleges Ban Smoking, Even in Your Car

January 7, 2012

Palm Beach Post - If you smoke, you may be breathing less easily on college campuses these days.

Looking for the designated smoking area at Florida International University? There is none.

Want to light a cigarette inside your car at the University of Florida? Don't let the cops see you.

Hoping to smoke during your break at Nova Southeastern University? You have six months left until NSU becomes the latest college to go tobacco-free. Come July 1, the covered smoking benches will come down and smoke-free-campus signs will go up.

"Although we'd like people to quit, we're not saying you have to. You just can't smoke here," said Tom Vitucci, NSU's director of campus recreation and leader of the smoke-free effort.

College campuses are becoming less tolerant of smokers, replacing tobacco restrictions with outright bans, even while in your car. Violators face discipline ranging from warnings to expulsion or termination in extreme cases. Most will just be told to extingish their cigarettes, Nova officials said.

Many people welcome the policies, saying they promote health and protect non-smokers. Others see them as overreaching and discriminatory.

"I understand that some people on campus don't like smoke, but they go to clubs and don't seem to have an issue with it," said NSU junior Carin Pool, 30, of Plantation, who was smoking on campus Friday. "It seems a little bit like they're picking on smokers."

Since announcing the forthcoming tobacco ban in November, NSU has been sending notices through email and its Facebook page, offering smoking cessation classes to students and employees.

About 75 percent of students and employees who responded to an NSU survey supported the change, Vitucci said. About 9 percent identified themselves as smokers, he said.

Max Scheiner, 20, of Plantation, is a non-smoker who supports the policy.

"It will mean cleaner air for everyone," he said.

But critics said these policies go beyond the initial intent of protecting people from second-hand smoke

"If you're in your car, you're not even talking about second-hand smoke. You're not affecting anyone else," said George Koodray, assistant director of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, a group that advocates smokers' rights. "This is about trying to stop someone from doing something you don't approve of even when it's legal."

Vitucci said it would send the wrong message if vehicles were excluded from the smoke-free policy.

"We don't want your car to be a safe haven, where you do any activity you want as long as you're in your car," he said.

There are now at least 639 smoke-free campuses in the United States, up from about 400 a year ago, according to the American Nonsmokers Rights Association. There are at least 13 in Florida, including UF, FIU, Miami-Dade College and the University of Central Florida.

More will likely follow suit. Florida Atlantic University restricts smoking to designated spots and plans to discuss possibly going smoke-free in about six months, said Tom Donaudy, FAU's vice president of facilities.

"We think we're doing the right thing by giving consideration to folks who might have been long-term smokers," Donaudy said. " It's a terrible habit to kick, so we want to give them heads-up before we go that way."

James St. Louis, a marketing assistant in NSU's undergraduate admissions office, said he didn't know whether the tobacco ban would cause him to quit. He's tried several times.

"I'll probably be going out to lunch a lot more," he said.