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• NYC's First Non-Smoking Apt Building Set To Open  

So some apartment buildings are now banning smoking for new tenants. Existing tenants who smoke will be allowed to continue to puff away.

That's not the case with the new East Harlem building at 1510 Lexington Avenue, which will be the city's first completely non-smoking residence, where tenants won't even be allowed to walk outside and light up in the immediate perimeter of the building. Even the construction workers can't light up.

"We feel that you're impacting, in a rental, so many people around you that we would like to offer the public an opportunity to live in a smoke-free environment," said Kinne Yon of Kenbar Management, which runs the building that will house 298 units.

The family-owned company gave CBS 2 a tour of the building, still under construction. The East Harlem development features upscale apartments, with concierge service, a large gym, and gardens. Smoking will not be allowed anywhere on the property.

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• For Some Smokers, Home’s Off Limits 

More landlords are moving to prohibit smoking in their apartment buildings, telling prospective tenants they can be evicted if they light up in them.

This month, the Related Companies will ban smoking at some of its downtown apartment buildings because of health concerns about secondhand smoke, according to company officials.

Smokers who already live in any of these buildings will not be affected, according to Jeff Brodsky, a president of Related, which is a national developer with 17 buildings in Manhattan.

But any new renters must promise not to smoke at home, even if they continue to elsewhere.

Kenbar Management, a local developer, is going a step further. When its new project, 1510 Lexington Avenue, opens in December, smoking will be banned in all 298 units, in addition to private and shared terraces.

And the typical smoker’s refuge — directly outside the building — is also off limits; tenants must agree not to smoke on any of the sidewalks that wrap around the building, which takes up most of a block in East Harlem, according to Kinne Yon, a Kenbar principal.

The trend has predictably divided smokers and nonsmokers in New York. . . .

So far, about 50 public housing agencies have now forbidden smoking, according to Betsy Feigin Befus, a lawyer with the National Multi Housing Council, a landlord trade group that has tracked the efforts.

Other cities, through legislation or by initiatives of developers, have taken similar steps.

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• 3 counties work to get smoke-free apartments 

Three metro counties will spend about $204,000 from state health-improvement grants over the next two years to help apartment landlords and renters make their buildings smoke-free.

They start the effort with a survey showing that half of local renters would consider moving to a smoke-free building, including 16 percent of smokers.

"We know that many people want to live in smoke-free environments, and we know that can improve public health," said Lisa Mueller, who administers the state grants for Hennepin County.

Hennepin, Ramsey and Dakota counties, as well as Minneapolis, are pooling part of their state grants to hire the nonprofit Association for Nonsmokers Minnesota to advise them on voluntary non-smoking efforts in multi-unit housing.

The association used part of that grant money to conduct the renters survey. It was conducted by Wilder Research and released to coincide with the annual Great American Smokeout, a stop-smoking effort started in 1974 in Minnesota.

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• Tenants demand tougher anti-smoking laws 

"We shut the doors, we shut the windows, which is pretty inconvenient and not guaranteed to stop all the smoke anyway," he said.

Horelick is part of a group of residents who are calling on the City Council to expand an ordinance that bans smoking in all common areas of apartments and condominiums to also apply to balconies and patios, arguing the current regulations, while a step in the right direction, don't go far enough.

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• Housing authorities ban indoor smoking 

Alan Pape doesn't like going into smokers' apartments. But as the maintenance mechanic for the North Bend City/Coos-Curry Housing Authorities, it's part of the job.

"When you have to stand in them for two or three hours at times and breathe in second-hand smoke -- I know it's not good for me," Pape said.

By March, Pape won't have to worry about nicotine-stained walls or smelling like an ash tray at the end of the day.

The two boards of commissioners for the housing authorities adopted a no-indoor-smoking policy for the apartments and buildings they own. The Woodland Apartments Preservation Inc. and Powers Housing Development Inc. -- apartments managed by the housing authorities -- also passed the same policy. The agencies provide section 8 and low-income housing North Bend, Coos Bay, Myrtle Point, Coquille and Port Orford. Woodland and Powers have units in Empire and Powers. Ned Beman, the executive director of the Housing Authorities, said the policy will likely impact 475 residents. He estimated that about 21 percent smoke.

The policy bans smokers from lighting up inside units or other buildings owned by the agencies. Those who smoke will be allowed to -- but outside at least 10 feet from a neighbor's door. It goes into effect on March 1.

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• Cigarette smoke wafting onto neighbor's patio brings lawsuit 

This is the story of two neighbors and a dispute over secondhand smoke in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills.

It seems like a minor story, especially with everything that's wrong in California: . . .

In short, the state is a disaster. You'd think with all those problems that a dispute between neighbors over cigarette smoke wouldn't generate much interest but it has garnered more response in the local newspaper than anything the paper has reported in recent memory --and frankly, the Sacramento Bee has been doing a bang-up job uncovering all sorts of graft, waste and corruption in state government. Does this story resonate at the national level? Here's the deal:

A California couple has filed a lawsuit seeking relief from their next-door neighbor's second-hand cigarette smoke.

Richard and Donna Ganguet were the first to move into a gated community for people age 55 and older. That was 2006. Today, they claim the cigar and cigarette smoke wafts into their yard from the property of neighbor has caused an intolerable situation. . . .

The responses --over 600 on the newspaper's website-- are all over the board. . . .

I had a problem a few years ago with heavy smoking neighbors. No amount of pleading would get them to take their smoke somewhere other than directly into my windows.

I fixed the problem by putting an old piece of fish in a bowl, hooking up a small, quiet fan right behind it, and placing the rig right next to the fence. Worked like a charm - inside two days, the neighbors moved their smoking area away from my side and didn't come back to it.

Don't get mad, get even.

What do you think? How do you resolve this problem between two neighbors?

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• Apartment building going smoke-free  

Russell Chandler has smoked for more than 50 years, but he is willing to curb his habit to be more neighbourly.

He is one of approximately 90 tenants of the South Chatham Village Apartments who will have to adapt to a smoking ban coming effect at the apartment complex, Jan 1, 2010.

"There's no hard feelings that they're doing that," Chandler said.

Martin Vanderzwan, chairman of the apartment's board of directors, said the smoking ban has been motivated by reducing the risk of fire and reducing the known health effects of secondhand smoke.

He said most of the residents responded to a survey on implementing the ban.

"It was almost unanimous that we should have a nonsmoking policy," Vanderzwan said.

There are 67 units in the building, including seven or eight units occupied by smokers, he said.

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• El Dorado Hills couple sues neighbor over cigarette smoke  

"In a senior community, you think we'll all be compatible and have the same values," said Richard Ganguet, a retired El Dorado County sheriff's deputy.

But three years after settling into their single-family home in El Dorado Hills' Four Seasons development, the Ganguets are suing their next-door neighbor over cigar and cigarette smoke they say wafts into their backyard and house.

Because of the smoke, the couple say, they no longer sit on their patio. They also try to sandwich in swims in the side-yard lap pool between their neighbors' smoking sessions.

Doug Smith, attorney for the neighboring homeowner, Florence Solone, said the issue is a trivial one that should be resolved by neighbors talking with each other, not with a lawsuit in El Dorado Superior Court.

But disputes between neighbors over secondhand smoke are increasingly making their way into courtrooms and city council chambers.

With smoking banned in workplaces, restaurants and bars, Californians are less willing to tolerate the smell of smoke in their houses or backyards, said Robin Salsburg, a staff attorney with the Oakland-based Public Health Institute's Public Health Law and Policy program.

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• $700,000 Monroe County Jury Award in Careless-Smoking Case  

A Monroe County jury has awarded $700,000 to the insurance company for the owner of a Marshalls Creek building that was destroyed by fire as a result of careless smoking by an employee of an electrical contractor, it was announced today.

The jury deliberated less than two hours at the end of a two-day trial before finding on behalf of Harleysville Insurance Company, represented by the Law Offices of Robert A. Stutman, of Ft. Washington, Pa, in the civil action stemming from the April 21, 2006, fire at the unoccupied building, a former Odd-Lot Outlet store, on Route 209 in Smithfield Township. The 20-year-old building, which was demolished following the fire, was in the process of being renovated into a day care center. Its owner was local developer Frank Riccobono.

Daniel Hogan, Esq., who tried the case for the plaintiff, established that the only possible cause of the fire was careless smoking by one of the two employees of the electrical contractor that had been working in the attic of the two-story structure. Investigators determined that the discarded, smoldering cigarette from the worker ignited the aged attic insulation, which over time loses fire-retardant qualities.

"The worker never admitted smoking while in the attic, where the fire started, that day," said Hogan. "But he testified to carrying cigarettes and a lighter to work and to having been a habitual smoker."

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• VIDEO: Homebuyers face questions on alcohol and smoking under new mortgage rules  

Homebuyers could be forced to provide detailed information about the amount of money they spend on alcohol each month to qualify for a new mortgage under a new clampdown on reckless lending.

In a sweeping review of the mortgage market published today, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) said lenders needed to be far more rigorous about their financial checks of potential borrowers.

It said lenders should delve deeper into homebuyers' personal spending including the amount they spend on alcohol and tobacco. . . .

The new measures, which aim to stamp out risky lending that has been criticised for compounding the financial crisis and tipping hundreds of thousands of homebuyers into negative equity, also include a plan to ban self-certified mortgages, dubbed "liar's loans", and to stop lenders from exploiting consumers who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments.

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• Smoking ban urged for Peel condos and apartments  

Peel's top public health officials are lobbying to ban smoking from apartments and condos in an effort to limit second-hand smoke inhalation.

If their push is successful, apartment dwellers would not be able to smoke in their own homes.

The region's council is going to examine a report co-authored by Commissioner of Health Services Janette Smith, and Dr. David Mowat, Peel's medical officer of health.

Their report says that Peel Public Health has received complaints from apartment tenants about smoke seeping into their homes.

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• No-smoking strategy: Apartment buildings start bans to draw new renters, keep peace among existing ones 

Warren Nisley liked the "green" features of the new Morgan at Loyola Station in Rogers Park when he was apartment hunting.

The mixed-use building near Loyola University Chicago has 152 apartments, is near public transportation and boasts eco-friendly features such as water-saving fixtures and efforts to improve internal air quality with low-gas-emitting paints and a no-smoking policy for all residents and guests.

The smoke-free environment wasn't the only criterion for deciding to live in the building, but it was part of a package that Nisley, 52, found appealing. . . .

The first no-smoking sections in restaurants appeared 30 years ago. Since then, smoking increasingly has been banned in commercial and public buildings because of concerns about second-hand smoke and a growing consumer demand for better quality air. But in Chicago, smoke-free apartments have been concentrated in smaller, privately owned buildings or privately owned units.

Jennifer Wolf, AMLI Residential's senior vice president for development, said the company chose to prohibit smoking in AMLI 900 to meet requirements to improve internal air quality, among other things, for LEED certification.

Wolf said the project, which opened in November, is on track to be the first new-construction high-rise apartment in Chicago to be LEED-certified, a measure of environmental sensitivity and sustainability.

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• Townhome resident's suit says cigarette smoke made her sick, harmed property; managers say damage unlikely  

A Dallas woman has filed a lawsuit seeking six figures from a former neighbor and landlord for damage she says was caused by cigarette smoke wafting through adjoining walls of her high-end townhome.

"Smoking is not a right, it's a privilege," said Chris Daniel, a retired nurse. "I'm sorry that people smoke. I think it's foolish, but when it comes into my house and hurts my health and my daughter's health and our belongings, it's a different issue."

The case is being watched by townhouse industry groups across the area.

A manager and attorney for Estancia Townhomes, a 52-building community near Prestonwood Country Club in North Dallas, said it's unlikely the Daniels sustained any smoke damage. There is a solid, two-hour fire wall from the foundation to the roof between each of the homes. . . .

Chris Daniel and her daughter, Cary, say in the lawsuit that a construction defect is allowing smoke to migrate between the units.

After a year of stinging eyes, breathing difficulty and sinus pain, they moved out of Estancia and into the Homewood Suites in Addison. Last week, movers wearing surgical masks loaded trucks with their belongings.

The Daniels said furniture will need to be reupholstered, artwork restored and closets full of clothing dry cleaned. The bills are still piling up.

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• Waterloo region considers smoking ban in public housing after residents’ complaints 

Complaints from tenants about second-hand smoke have prompted Waterloo Region to consider banning smoking in their multi-unit dwellings.

“In general, I would support some kind of restrictions with respect to second-hand smoke” said Coun. Sean Strickland, chair of regional council’s community services committee, which oversees regional housing.

A report on the issue is slated to be before regional council next month.

Strickland said the issue is riddled with concerns such as a municipality’s right to prohibit a person from smoking in their own home to enforcement of such a ban.

The region receives an average of five calls a month from tenants complaining about second-hand smoke seeping into their dwellings from other units and open windows.

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• Ban on smoking could be coming to Sebastopol 

Sebastopol city officials will hold a public forum regarding a proposed city smoking ordinance affecting multi-family dwelling units starting at 2 p.m., Monday, Sept. 21 in the City Hall conference room, 7120 Bodega Avenue.

The meeting is specifically aimed at listening to the concerns of residential complex managers and building owners, according to City Manager Jack Griffin.

Griffin said consideration of such an ordinance has been in the works at City Hall for some time.

“The smoking ordinance issue is something that was identified by the council as early as the fall of 2008,” Griffin stated, adding that a staff report on the issue had been drawn up by former city manager Dave Brennan in November of that year.

“The city has received some complaints from multi-family residents,” he said,

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