Ban on smoking in apartments considered then tabled
Ordinance would ban smoking in multi-unit apartment complexes; limit secondhand smoke to other occupants.
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The Fairfax Town Council, Wednesday night, briefly considered and then temporarily shelved an ordinance that would ban smoking in multi-unit apartment complexes.
The ordinance, brought by council member Larry Bragman, is designed to limit the amount of secondhand smoke that apartment dwellers are exposed to. Because many apartment complexes have shared common spaces, ventilation systems, patios, and closely-packed windows and doors, secondhand smoke from one apartment can enter another without those residents even necessarily knowing.
"Lots of people say, 'we're protected at work, what makes secondhand smoke any better at home?'" said Pam Granger of Smoke Free Marin.
Two forums were held over the past six months in which residents were able to voice concerns they had about a possible ordinance. The stories that some families and kids told "would just break your heart," said Granger, who also pointed out that kids and seniors are the most affected by pollutants in the air and spend large amounts of time in their homes.
"At home, it doesn't give you a choice to walk away," said Lydia Kind Heart.
At the forums, there were also those that felt the ordinance was too much of an intrusion into their lives.
"Where does this stop is my question?" said Mark Bell.
Mayor Lew Tremaine said that he was both a smoker and also "one of those people who feel as though this is an overreach by the government."
Tremaine called the ordinance "extreme" and said he had a number of concerns about the ordinance and argued that the way it was worded would ban 19 Broadway and Peri's from having ashtrays outdoors and would cut their outdoor smoking patios because of their proximity to other residences.
The question of where the line is drawn between individual rights and causing harm to others is what ultimately held the ordinance up, without a clear agreement.
"The health and the safety of the secondhand smoke recipient far outweigh the personal freedom intrusion of the smoker," said Bragman.
Bragman and Tremaine said they will work on the issue outside of the council and bring back a revised ordinance at the October meeting.
Audrey Silk
2:14 am on Saturday, September 4, 2010
The flaw in Bragman's position is that there is no threat to health to nonsmokers in other apartments. This is an anti-smoker crusade myth that they've been allowed to perpetrate on the public with no real investigation by anyone in the position of authority or the media. "No safe level" is biologically implausible and no more than a political statement. That the Surgeon General has said it in a press release does NOT make it any more true (read the actual study). It too was a political statement by an agenda-driven member of "Public Health" who happily goes along with prostituting science in order to advance their utopian smokER-free society. For our homes to be invaded in such a way based on a lie is a greater disaster and threat to the public's well being than the odor of smoke could ever be. This has to stop. And if not by defeating such measures than by defiance in the face of an unjust law enacted by intolerants and bullies in power.
Founder, NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (C.L.A.S.H.)
Larry Bragman
5:30 pm on Monday, September 13, 2010
I'm not sure who NYC CLASH is but he is deadly wrong on his "facts". There have been numerous peer reviewed studies which document the toxicity of second hand smoke and its disastrous public health consequences. Thousands of unnecessary and premature deaths; tens of thousands of children forced to use asthma medications; thousands of fire deaths. The tobacco industry and their acolytes are truly the merchants of death. Sensible tobacco control laws will protect and enhance our Town's health and safety. There may be some minor conflicts that need to be worked out to create a fair ordinance but in the end both smokers and non-smokers will benefit from its passage.
Kelly Dunleavy O'Mara
11:22 am on Tuesday, September 14, 2010
I don't live in Fairfax right now, so the proposed ordinance won't personally effect me, but I know that when I did live in a big apartment complex that was supposed to be smoke-free, people would still sit in front of our windows and smoke and it would blow into our bedroom. It was really unpleasant.