Mass. activists sidestep fray
Jump to full article: Boston (MA) Globe, 2009-04-24
Author: Stephen Smith Globe Staff
Intro: It was one thing, they figured, for lawmakers to banish smoking from restaurants and bars. It was something else entirely to deploy city or state laws to prevent apartment tenants and condo owners from smoking in their own homes.
So, instead, they are leaving it to market forces, convinced that the supply side - landlords - will listen to the demand side - nonsmoking tenants - and adopt smoke-free rules.
It appears to be working.
"Now renting! Smoke-free apartment living" trumpets a banner billowing from a blocklong apartment house rising in the shadow of TD Banknorth Garden. And a soon-to-be-released survey from Northeastern University shows broad support for smoke-free living among tenants, a finding that activists plan to share in coming months with landlords, tenants, and condo boards.
"This isn't government shoving it down the tenants' throat," said Jim Bergman, who directs the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project, which tracks the movement nationally. "When you start putting restrictions on where people can smoke in their home, even if it's a rental home, they might feel that's an infringement of their rights in a greater way than having smoke-free workplaces."
Still, even this more gentle strategy is sure to rankle some smokers, who complain of being branded as pariahs.
Stephen Helfer, who has fought on behalf of smokers' rights for years, said there is nothing subtle about efforts that he argues will further marginalize the poor and the mentally ill, who smoke at rates higher than the state average. . . .
"People have criticized us and said this is a nanny state issue," said former Belmont City Council member David Warden, who championed the regulation, which can result in a $100 fine for scofflaw smokers. "A nanny state to me is when you have laws that try to protect you from yourself.
"The intent here is to protect people from other people's behavior." . . .
landlords insist it can cost thousands of dollars to restore carpets and paint in units occupied by smokers. And condo boards that go smoke-free cite a lower fire risk and, potentially, reduced insurance costs.
The Mount Vernon Co., which owns apartment buildings on such tony corridors as Commonwealth Avenue and Newbury Street, was among the first to ban smoking.
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