The town of San Rafael, Calif., has passed a ban on smoking that city
officials have called the most stringent in the nation. The new
ordinance makes it illegal for residents to smoke in their own homes if
they share a wall with another dwelling. The ban applies to owners and
renters alike, and it covers condominiums, co-ops, apartments and any
multi-family residence containing three or more units.
Rebecca Woodbury, an analyst at the San Rafael City Manager's office,
helped craft the ban, which took effect Nov.14. "We based it on a county
ordinance," she told ABC News, "but we modified it, and ended up making
it the strictest. I'm not aware of any ordinance that's stronger."
Cities with similar but less severe smoking restrictions include
Cambridge, Mass., and other California cities, including Walnut Creek
and Tiburon.
In June, the Related Companies became the first developer and property
owner to ban smoking in all 40,000 of its rental residences in 17
states. New York City bans tobacco sales to anyone under 21. Jessica
Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for Related, said the ban had been popular.
"There are more people who want to live in smoke-free environments than
there are apartments available. Demand far exceeds supply."
The provisions that make San Rafael's rule unique, said Woodbury,
include the prohibition on smoking in dwellings that share a wall,
including owner-occupied condos, duplexes and multi-family units. "It
doesn't matter if it's owner-occupied or renter-occupied. We didn't want
to discriminate. The distinguishing feature is the shared wall." As
justification for the rule, she cited studies showing that secondhand
smoke seeped through ventilating ducts and walls, even through cracks.
"It depends on a building's construction," she said, "but it does affect
the unit next door, with the negative health impacts due to smoke."
The ordinance cites such studies, plus a 2011 study by UCLA that found
that California property owners paid up to $18 million a year to clean
apartments vacated by tenants who'd smoked. Asked if there was
opposition to the ordinance, Woodbury said there was hardly any. "We
have a very low percentage of smokers in the county," she said,
referring to Marin.
George Koodray, New Jersey state coordinator for Citizens Freedom
Alliance and the Smoker's Club, called San Rafael's rule and ones like
it "mischievous." Years ago, he said, when restrictions on smoking were
first introduced, "the spirit of the legislation was supposedly to
protect people who did not want to be exposed to smoke." Today, he said,
the motivating spirit had changed: People disapprove of the habit, and
wish to restrict it whether or not it affects them directly. Bans like
San Rafael's, he believes, are far removed from being a sincere effort
to bring about a health benefit.
"I don't believe it's rooted in science," said Koodray, who is president
of the Metropolitan Society, a group of New Jersey cigar smokers.
"Someone smoking in a sealed apartment endangers the health of others in
the building? The science for that is spurious at best."
Steve Stanek, a research fellow at the Chicago-based Heartland
Institute, which he calls a free market-oriented public policy group,
views the San Rafael ban as part of a wider trend: a proliferation of
rules of all kinds.
"I don't like cigarettes, and I've never taken a puff," he said. "My
sympathies aren't with smokers because I am one, it's because of the
huge growth in laws and punishments and government restricting people
more and more." Illinois' criminal code was 72 pages long in 1965, he
said; today it's more than 1,300 pages long. "The encroachment of
government is astonishing," he said.
A look around the U.S. finds towns and cities busily regulating anything and everything:
Plastic bags will be banned in Los Angeles after the first of the year.
They're already banned in several other California cities, including
Long Beach and San Jose. Karelia cigarettes and Kent cigarettes.
Austin, Texas, bans both plastic and paper bags from grocery stores.
San Francisco tried to ban fast-food meals that came with toys.
Forest Park, Ga., in 2011 made it illegal to breastfeed in public a
child older than 2. After public protest, the ban was lifted.
Cocoa, Fla., makes it illegal to wear baggy pants on city streets.
Palo Alto, Calif., makes it illegal to live in your car.
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