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Letter: Praises smoking ordinance 

Congratulations to Danville commissioners Louis, Hamner and Crowley for finally putting the health and well-being of the children in this community above the needs of those in our community who are addicted to nicotine. It is impossible with such an issue to make everyone happy, but now the youth of our community have a clear message that smoking may not be something which is readily accepted, particularly in public places. . . .

government already does not allow us to abuse our children within the confines of their home. So, is exposing them to secondhand smoke any different? Maybe with the new ordinance those who smoke will consider not exposing their children to secondhand smoke in their home or auto either.

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Letter: Response to no smoking policy 

I would like to commend Mrs. McIntosh for being so outspoken. God bless you. I thought we lived in the land of the free. I think this applies to housing and HUD and the board of Danville housing. Do you smoke at home? I'd also like to say the tenants don't make the rules. It's not our place to report. Check with OSHA. They say you get a break to smoke.

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• No smoking at home? Danville residents fear policy is first step toward 'Orwellian World' 

But McIntosh isn't waiting to write a novel to extol the virtues of a life full of liberty. She is doing that now as she leads essentially a one-woman campaign against what she feels is an infringement on the freedom of the residents of the Housing Authority of Danville.

The target of her campaign is a new no-smoking policy set to take effect June 1. Although the housing authority has 394 units with a total of some 700 residents living in them, the policy will affect only five units and the building in which they are located.

But McIntosh believes the policy is broad enough to give the housing authority officials license to impose it on all units and residents.

"I see this policy as the first step toward a total ban on smoking in housing authority apartments," said McIntosh, a retired school teacher - and a non-smoker for 35 years - who lives in a unit on Crescent Drive. "It may now apply only to a few units, but it has language in it that can cover an expansion of the policy." . . .

"And I'm old enough to remember Hitler, and I know Orwell's '1984' virtually by memory," said the avid reader and admitted "pack rat," to whom White gave a two-bedroom apartment so she would have enough room to store her hundreds of books.

"A home is a man's castle, and I don't think Big Brother should be allowed to take one foot inside of it just to put out a cigarette. In America, we are supposed to be the home of the free and the brave, and I think the residents here need to be brave enough to fight for their freedom."

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Danville Housing Authority to implement limited smoking ban 

The Housing Authority of Danville is about to impose its own policy but on a much smaller scale.

While most of the public attention has been aimed at the commission, the housing authority board quietly has drafted its own no-smoking policy for its residential buildings. It will take effect June 1, barring an unforeseen avalanche of opposition from tenants.

The board wrote the policy in March and has given residents until the end of April to voice their opinions of it, said Executive Director Rachel White. The agency has received 15 calls and one letter, she said.

"Most of the response we've received has come from tenants who don't want to live in a smoke-free unit or building, but they also aren't opposed to tenants being able to live in a smoke-free unit or building," she said.

None of the respondents has asked for a tenants' meeting or to meet with the board.

When the policy takes effect in June, it will cover only five units, White said.

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State Senate bill would allow landlords to ban smoking in rentals  

California apartment complexes could be declared smoke-free zones under legislation that's scheduled to be considered this week by a state Senate committee. Sen. Alex Padilla says his bill would ensure that owners of rental housing have the option to ban smoking.

"The way the law is (currently) written..., it's not explicit for landlords to declare smoke-free housing units without being sued," he said. "We're trying to make the law a little more clear, a little more explicit."

The bill, scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would allow landlords to ban smoking on all or a portion of their property, including in any building on the site.

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Bill opens door to smoke-free apartments 

California apartment complexes could be declared smoke-free zones under legislation that's scheduled to be considered this week by a state Senate committee.

Sen. Alex Padilla says his bill would ensure that owners of rental housing have the option to ban smoking.

"The way the law is (currently) written ... it's not explicit for landlords to declare smoke-free housing units without being sued," he said. "We're trying to make the law a little more clear, a little more explicit."

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• Bill would allow landlords to ban smoking in Calif. rentals 

California apartment complexes could be declared smoke-free zones under legislation that's scheduled to be considered this week by a state Senate committee.

Sen. Alex Padilla says his bill would ensure that owners of rental housing have the option to ban smoking.

"The way the law is (currently) written..., it's not explicit for landlords to declare smoke-free housing units without being sued," he said. "We're trying to make the law a little more clear, a little more explicit."

The bill, scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would allow landlords to ban smoking on all or a portion of their property, including in any building on the site.

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Advocates urge smoke-free public housing 

The State Fire Marshal's Office and the Smoke-Free Housing Coalition today urged the state's housing authorities to make their housing units smoke-free by Jan. 1, 2009.

Smoking is the the top cause of residential fire-related deaths in Maine and the United States, the two groups pointed out. And a quarter of those who die in home fires caused by smoking products are not the smokers, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

In multi-unit housing, the threats of residential smoking are magnified. Smoking exposes tenants to harmful carcinogens, boosts maintenance costs for landlords and puts tenants in the line of related fires.

Fifteen of Maine's 25 housing authorities have made their public housing units smoke-free.

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Public Housing Smoking Ban Eyed 

State Fire Marshall John Dean and the Smoke-Free have introduced a statewide initiative would ban smoking in apartment houses.

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Outdoor smoking areas not addressed under Florida statute 

Q. At a recent meeting, the board decided to ban smoking at the outdoor pools and near the clubhouse. They said Florida law does not allow smoking at a public place. Is a condominium pool considered a public place? Can the board elect to do this by themselves? —D.B., Sanford

A. There is a Florida statute concerning indoor smoking, FS 386, but it does not cover outdoor areas. In past columns, I have recommended that the board set aside a smoking area and a nonsmoking area. Maybe the board establishes a nonsmoking near the clubhouse and a smoking area on the outside of the pool deck. What some smokers do not realize is that their second-hand smoke can be hazardous to some people. I have volunteered at a village that brings terminally ill children and their families to Central Florida for a week and provides tickets to the theme parks.

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San Carlos condo smoking debate is still burning  

A smoldering controversy regarding smoking in a San Carlos condominium complex has reignited, months after one resident took the homeowners association to court over the issue and lost.

Susie Parano, 55, and Jane Clusin, her friend and fellow Brittan Heights condominium complex resident, took their smoking complaints to their homeowners association last week by submitting a petition against allowing residents to smoke inside their units and on their balconies and patios.

The two women said the petition forwarded to the homeowners association board Wednesday was signed by about half of the residents in the more than 400-unit complex. However, the board did not take any action.

Parano lost a small claims case against the homeowners association last November in which she sought $7,500 in damages that she said was caused by her downstairs neighbor Oleg Gitin's smoking.

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SEPP apartments go smoke-free 

Tobacco Free Broome will hold a celebration Monday to mark SEPP's decision to go smoke-free.

The event is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday in the Marian Apartment building complex on Hooper Road in Endwell. SEPP (Serving the Elderly through Project Planning) recently decided to have its buildings become smoke-free.

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Landlords Hail Smoke Ruling 

The province's landlords say they're relieved that the courts have upheld a landlord's right to prohibit smoking on their premises.

CORPIQ spokesman Hans Brouillette says it's not a matter of discrimination against smokers, but of protecting other tenants from smoke wafting into their apartments.

There's also the issue of the high cost of cleaning and restoring an apartment vacated by a smoker.

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Revise leases to deal with smokers, landlords urge 

A court ruling that orders a Montreal woman not to smoke in the flat she rents could change the way leases are written in Quebec, if a provincial landlords' association has its way.

The Quebec Court verdict, issued Thursday, overturned a Quebec rental board decision and has sparked a request from the province's largest landlords' lobby for changes in the standard Quebec rental board lease.

The landlords' group, the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec, urged yesterday that the standard lease should include boxes to be marked to allow or ban smoking in any dwelling that is being rented. The standard lease form has been largely unchanged since 1994.

"We are studying the implications," Jean-Pierre Le Blanc, a spokesperson for the provincial Régie du logement

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Smoking bans should be part of lease: landlords 

The standard apartment lease provided by the Quebec Rental Board should be amended to include a specific clause that allows or prohibits smoking on the premises, Quebec's largest landlord association said Friday.

"It is up to the owner to decide if a smoking ban is justified when a lease is signed, at the risk of losing possible tenants," said Hans Brouillette, spokesperson for the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec.

Commonly known as CORPIQ, the lobby group says 277,000 Quebec landlords own 1.3 million dwellings across the province.

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