Q: We own a fourplex apartment building with long-term tenants in every unit. The couple upstairs has asked us to implement a smoke-free policy for the building. They claim that the smoke from their downstairs neighbors enters their unit no matter what they do, through the staircase and even the adjacent windows. The downstairs people are perfectly fine tenants, have no intention of quitting, and tell us that we can’t do anything about it. What should we do? –Wes and Judy Z. A: What do you want to do? In this area, because the law is relatively unformed, you have some options. If y ... Jump to full article >>

Prohibiting tobacco use at home could reduce adolescent smoking rates, but the practice might be less common in black families than in white ones, a new study found. “African-American homes have fewer full bans, and more people are allowed to smoke in those homes,” said Jessica Muilenburg, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of health promotion and behavior at the University of Georgia. The study appears in the August issue of the journal Health Education & Behavior. Researchers led by Muilenburg surveyed 4,296 Mississippi high school students about their smoking ha ... Jump to full article >>

Richmond will ban smoking in apartments and condominiums in addition to public places, making the city the toughest place in the Bay Area to light up. City officials will require multiunit housing to go smoke-free by Jan. 1, 2011. That includes individual apartment units and common areas such as lobbies and patios, where experts say secondhand smoke can seep through cracks, vents and wall sockets. Apartment owners can designate a smoking area, but it must be at least 25 feet away from where smoking is prohibited. Fines for violating the new ban on smoking in multiunit housing start at $100. Th ... Jump to full article >>

While living in the San Fernando Valley in early 2006, I remember thinking how ludicrous it was that the Calabasas City Council had adopted an ordinance that basically eliminated the ability for anyone to smoke in public. The secondhand smoke control ordinance specified that smoking was prohibited in all public places where other persons could be exposed to secondhand smoke, including indoor and outdoor businesses, hotels, parks, apartment common areas, restaurants and bars where people could reasonably be expected to congregate or meet. At the time, as a half-a-pack-a-day smoker, I felt perse ... Jump to full article >>

“I’m intrigued that people advocating a return to legalised smoking in pubs believe it will come about by getting rid of the Labour government. Fat chance.” I see the second anniversary of the English smoking ban was marked in much the same way as was the first, with vociferous opposition from pro-puffers. For my part I commemorated the ban at the Glastonbury festival by indulging in several roll-ups of a, er, “tobacco-free” nature, but that’s another story. Back to reality, I’m intrigued that people advocating a return to legalised smoking in pubs bel ... Jump to full article >>

Hamilton’s Board of Health decided there were too many problems in endorsing a city staff proposal to ban smoking in City Housing Hamilton buildings. “It’s unrealistic, it’s unenforceable, it will not solve anything,” said Ward 4 councillor Sam Merulla. “This is a legal substance. We are talking about a home. For us to go into someone’s home is so … I don’t have the words, overwhelming. It’s out of our jurisdiction.” Public Health officials in a report to the Board of Health this week proposed to ban smoking in newly acquired Ci ... Jump to full article >>

Low-income tenants face smoking ban in county apartments In 1988, they banned it in airplanes. In 1994, in offices. In 2006, the bars. And this month, they finally banned smoking in Teri Richard’s apartment building. “When I grew up, there was a big ashtray on everybody’s table,” said Richard, 53, sitting under a small corner of awning that stretches 25 feet from the nearest door. Though Richard and a handful of her neighbors are only the latest of millions of tenants across the country to choose such indignities for the sake of an addiction, these tenants have an unus ... Jump to full article >>