Illegal to Smoke at Home: Butt Out?
Two new legal commandments have been delivered to the Silicon Valley town of Belmont, California:
Thou shalt not smoke in thy apartment
Thou shalt inform authorities of anyone who does smoke in an apartment
Belmont is home to America’s most restrictive secondhand smoking law, which now makes it illegal to light up in an apartment or condo that shares a wall, ceiling, or floor with another unit. Violators face a $100 fine from the city, as well as eviction if smoking violates their lease agreement.
Additionally, the new law makes citizens responsible for enforcing it by encouraging them to call authorities and report their neighbors if they light up in any home other than a free-standing house.
All of which has left some residents fuming—outside.
“I’m absolutely outraged,” said one apartment dweller who now must leave home to smoke her two packs a day. “They’re telling you how to live and what to do, and they’re doing it right here in America.”
Proponents of the new law, including the California Lung Association, see it differently. “They simply said that secondhand smoke is no less dangerous when it’s in your bedroom than in your workplace,” explained a spokesperson.
“They” is the Belmont city council, whose members have received hate mail for passing the no-smoking-at-home ordinance, which one former council member likens to other matters of shared-living etiquette. “You can’t walk around naked in your house with the blinds open, or you’ll get arrested,” he said. “You can’t play loud music in your house and bother your neighbors. It’s illegal.”
But even some supporters of smokers’ responsibility to so-called third parties, such as neighbors, are questioning whether Belmont should butt out. “There are good scientific and public health reasons for restricting smoking in closed public spaces,” said an expert in public health ethics. “But when such restrictions are extended to beaches, parks, sidewalks and now to the homes of smokers, the argument that third-party harms must be prevented becomes increasingly untenable.”
Tell us what you think: Should smokers be responsible for their neighbors’ health? Should citizens be responsible for turning in at-home smokers? How far should government go in determining what you can do in the privacy of your home?
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Next???
Telling people what they can and can not read?
Burning books?
Oh, I know how about telling people where they have to live?
Sounds a bit like history repeating it’s self to me…
Vix | 8 months, 1 week ago
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no title..just a woman..a smoker
I’m not happy about it but I am a smoker..I think about it these days as a substitute for other distractions..addictions..that would be worse..Smoking in an apartment building such as a condo would be offensive, and could be a risk to elderly people’s health. For that reason if I rented, I wouldn’t choose to live in that sort of setting unless I planned only to smoke outside or quit. I live in a duplex with an exsmoker and a child of 15. He shouldn’t be exposed to secondhand smoke either..and I know it is not a good role model behavior..responsibility ..isn’t always 100%, that child’s room has always been a bigger hazard to his health than my smoke could ever be in my opinion..and perhaps I harbor some resentment..also, he sleeps with his window open..he likes it cold..He wears no coat? I don’t know..he’s 15..who understands? I am wrong..but he not showing signs of any health problems. My parents smoked. I’m middle aged..I breath, and they both smoked about 3 packs a day. I think perhaps our data is a little bias. also. In regards to the American Cancer Society warnings, and I think I can understand why. But, if smoking is killing people, my question is? Why are we selling so many cigarettes? This country needs to support it’s people..just stop selling them..people will stop dying..stop smoking..no issue. I think the reason is ..not enough money to support the people that DO DIE? Who cares? They are old..or dead..
Serenity | 8 months, 1 week ago
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I think that it is getting to be so ridiculous what the government is sticking their nose in. if i own a condo i should be able to do whatever I want to do in it. The smoke cannot go through the walls. Plus second hand smoke is just a myth. They have not really proofed that there really is that problem. what rights are they going to take away next. Believe me, they will. And if everyone quit smoking, who would pay all those ridicules taxes they have imposed. Put more on drinking, that harms more people then smoking. The government needs to stay out of people’s private lives.
sue | 8 months, 1 week ago
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Uuhhh, first off get your facts straight. Secondhand smoke is real. Secondly the taxes put on cigarettes is a deterrent to stop people from smoking as much. They have also made alcohol illegal. In the past it was called the 18th Amendment but because the mob bosses like AL Capone were getting rich off of smuggling alcohol and an increasing demand within the populace it was nullified by the 21st Amendment.
fred | 8 months, 1 week ago
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Umm, Fred, what facts would these be?
Read a few statistics, there is no evidence whatsoever that a lesser smoking population lives longer. The US has gone from being a nation where almost 70% of the population smoked (which it was for half a century BTW) to barely 20% smoke, in that same time frame the percentage of the population that dies annually from every single disease that is associated with smoking or secondhand smoke has increased as the rate of smokers has decreased. There isn’t a single smoker that will try and convince you that smoking is good for you, but quite ironically there is no sociological statistics to prove the opposite. To further the paradox the civilized nations of the world with the highest instances of smoking are the nations with the longest life expectancies.
Please do not believe me on face value, and by the same token don’t believe rhetoric of organizations whose charter is to eliminate smoking either. Do some research, check non-biased sources; statistical abstracts, WHO stats, compare these to the statistics on the instance of smoking in societies. Check Western Europe stats, Japan.
…or then again maybe it’s easier for you just to believe the increasingly and ridiculously exaggerated “facts” these organizations throw around. I have seen “facts” on this subject, from supposedly reputable organizations that attribute higher fatality rates from smoking related disease per year than the combined total of all health related deaths combined. Just shows how gullible our society has become.
Ken | 8 months ago
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I this America
Indiana just passed a statewide bill similar to this one. I am trying to figure out when America became a Communist state. To think they can tell us what to do in our around our own home is crazy. It looks like maybe we need to take this country back and limit these lawmakers on what they have the power to control.
Kip Pancake | 8 months, 1 week ago
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This is insane! There is no health risk of SHS through a wall!! Where is the due process of law here? Removing due process of the law with regards to ANY issue should scare the hell out of anyone. Think of the precedent that this sets. Prove it. Prove that there is a carcinogenic level of smoke that can go through walls for crying out loud! You can’t, because there IS no health threat. This is un-constitutional, un-American, and is scary as hell. Think Germany circa the Hitler years people. State sponsored hate has no place in a free and just society.
jredheadgirl | 8 months ago
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Non-smoker
I am a non-smoker but I firmly believe that a person should have the right to smoke in their own house! For crying out loud…this is supposed to be land of the free! It is our money; our health…the government should BUTT OUT.
Michelle | 8 months ago
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Smoking
I wanted to say that my mom and my mother in law never smoked are where they around second hand smoke and both of them died of cancer so why do people make a big deal about smoking. I’m 55 and I smoke but as healthy as a horse so people need to let smokers alone.
PATSY LUDWIG | 8 months ago
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Smoking in one's home
What’s next? This is crazy. Cigarettes are unhealthy but other habits people have are so much worse. I agree smoking in certain places not safe for others but in own home is all ridiculous. Communist, go away; this isn’t Russia.
debbie corbin | 8 months ago
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