Released: April 04, 2007

Public housing kicks smoking habit

Source: Emily Bazar, USA Today

Tenants in some public housing complexes can no longer light up in the one place that seemed safe from smoking bans: their own homes. From California to Maine, at least 36 public housing authorities have made their apartments smoke-free, says Jim Bergman, director of the Smoke-Free Environments Law Project.

Such policies are not unusual in private dwellings. The trend has accelerated in government-subsidized rentals in the past year.

Housing officials say they made the change to protect non-smoking tenants from secondhand smoke, prevent cigarette fires and reduce the cost of rehabbing smokers’ apartments.

“Smoking does affect the health of your neighbor, and that’s where we have to draw the line,” says Wayne Pyden, executive director of the Marysville Housing Commission in Michigan. The commission manages a 132-unit building whose low-income residents are elderly or disabled. Secondhand smoke is a concern because air is recirculated and smoke travels into other units, he says.

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