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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Smoking in your home
Tell me I can’t smoke in my four walls. The neighbor would be… well you know – not in the best of health. ::: laughs :::: Neighbors for smoking police.
Wayne Travis | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Smokers Have been around longer than ...
I am tired of all the nonsense the non smokers are putting in every ones head. First and foremost, we pay higher taxes for something we enjoy doing. If they don’t like it – tough. Also, you are right about the books soon there will be no children’s books that were published before 1983 because they have lead in the ink now. When are the do gooders going to wise up. This is America people and all are created equal. The biggest cancer is caused by our government. They have bargained with the Tobacco Company and had to pay each state a settlement fund which is now being used for other things then it was intended for.
The biggest cancer is the big government that is violating your rights and freedoms and steeling from the public moneys. This is a personal thing and the government should but out. Maybe they should start taxing Gay people just because they want to be gay. The can not rent in a complex because they are gay. They may transmit second hand gayism. We certainly Donor want Americas children exposed to that they will get AIDS or worst yet they may contract the government maid HIV virus. Oh No! Get off your high horse none Smokers. Some of these people don’t even realize what is going on around them. All the while the fat cats of the government are getting rich and above the law. Oh! And another thing ask how many members of the MADD group had gotten charged with DUI then ask how many politicians had gotten the full wrath of the law on DUI. Start looking at what is going in and around you people. Do you really think that the people you put into office are working for you best interest? If you do then you deserve every thing you get. Then let’s talk about what is really causing the cancer through this country of ours. Let’s talk about the radiation levels that are in the areas in which you live. Do you think that smoking is the main cause of the cancers we are getting? If so then you are a bigger fool then the smoker. Do you know why we have so much trouble in our streets of this nation? Because the Government and the do gooders intervene in the family structure. I knew that a good butt whipping when I was young taught me how to respect my parents and others. But now of days children have laws to protect their rights and tell their parents to go to Hell. Why, they can even divorce their parants. What is happening is that too, too much government intervention. So you will have to wear your under wear on the out side of your pants so that we can see that you are wearing clean under wear ever day. This government has to do as we say, not what they want to do. America this is not what our fore fathers had in mind. As for the yuppies whom think they are better then anyone else, then I will tell you to move to a communistic country. This is the land of the free and of the brave.
History always repeats it self over and over again. We are in the beginning of a Depression. This I tell you is true! The pettiness of not being able to do what you want is not freedom. Yes I am a Smoker and I think it is Bull. People have been doing this smoking for years and some have even survived past 100 years old. I will bet soon there will be a revolution whereby the country will take its indepenance back again. So Yes Butt out of the smokers business and stop over taxing them. Most of the bars, clubs, restraints are closing because the smoking band. Heavy taxes and deals with the tobacco companies from our government are going for other things through apporeations. The biggest is these pork barrels. The thing I want to say is tell the people whom are representing us to stop stealing our taxes. Start looking into your tax base and you will see all the greed that is taking place. Close done the government programs of children and youth service to only taking care of real abuse of the children. Think Democracy of the people, by the people and for the people. Have a nice Day!!!!!!!!!
Charles H. Bachman Jr. | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Issnt this still america?
I thought this was America.we are supposed to be a free country. As more and more things I hear about the Gov putting restrictions on things the less I feel about where I’m living. Yes I do think the Gov should butt out. Its a lil insane to tell some one they’re evicted for smoking a cigarette in their own enclosed home. And I’m sorry.all you people thinking second hand smoke is gonna kill you??? Get over it. You breath far worse when walking down the side walk breathing car exhuast fumes or sitting infront of your camp fires. This is just another thing for the “NAGGERS” to NAG about. Butt out and leave America alone. Thank you.
michael | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Alcohol is legal, what country do you live in? Drinking and driving is illegal not alcohol. There are more toxins in the “clean” air you think you’re breathing than smoke from someones cigarette, think about it!
wkj | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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New Tech Solutions
No one above has mentioned these possibilities so here it goes:
1. Vaporizer. Most brands run $200 – $600 but a big savings in the long run compared to $2000 a year for a pack-a-day smoker in a high tax state. Eliminates carbon monoxide and all smoke including side-stream smoke (SSS, which is worse than second-hand smoke SHS). Heats the tobacco to about 400 degrees Fahrenheit, instead of temperatures over 1000 degrees Fahrenheit reached in conventional cigarettes.
2. E-cigarette. Ignore Senator Lautenberg. There’s no way this mini-vaporizer isn’t safer than cigarettes. It vaporizes pure nicotine and/or other flavors from a cartridge in the mouthpiece by means of a heating element which runs on rechargeable batteries. Various brands start around $60.
3. Screened single-toke utensil (long-stemmed one-hitter). This miniature smoking method (1/4”-diameter. crater) permits 25-mg. servings instead of 700-mg. as in a typical cigarette, no side-stream smoke.
maxwood | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Sick And tired
I’m sick and tired of the government be it local state or federal, dictating how American citizens should live. The minority dictates to the majority. If our founding fathers were here to see what we have become as a nation, they would croak! Barrack Obama, our so called President, smokes cigarettes, probably in the White House. I don’t hear anybody complaining!! Why don’t they tax alcohol more? They won’t because the government officials run on alcohol. Five Martini lunches, etc. These power hungry buffoons can’t get enough satisfaction watching other people squirm, while they clean up on money from special interests at our expense.
Dale Thomas | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Non - Smokers who have a problem should first
It is wrong for the government to punish a smoker. If they want to outlaw smoking completely, that would be different. These people should investigate the emissions from their “safe” or “unsafe” cars compared to their neighbor’s cigarette and then fight to change the policy about their cars. They should stop driving before they point a finger at smokers in the first place. I have stopped smoking, after 44 years; however smokers should have every right to smoke in private or public, anywhere that is not prohibited by the owner of the property – period.
Patrick Bryan | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Comments to Maxwood on 'New Tech Solutions'
I have looked into all other alternatives. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN PROVEN SAFE AT ALL, so I will stick to my cigarettes, thank you.
My Dad smoked regularly in the little 1500 sq. ft. home I lived in until I was 20, married & left home. My Mom never smoked, but she, my brother and me are all very healthy for our ages…..no heart problems, no cancer, nothing…..so this proves secondary smoke is NOT as detrimental to others as all the ‘stuck on anti-smoking’ groups (esp. in CA who started all of this mess!!) would like for the world to think.
My parents are in their 80s, my Dad has had a heart shunt, but is doing great, as is my Mom……and we inhaled his cigarette, then pipe secondary smoke for over 20 years. So I wish these FANATICS would put this in their peach pipe and smoke it themselves.
I was FURIOUS when we could no longer smoke in public places. This was the first time ever in this what used to be a great country of ours, I felt like and still do feel like a 2nd rate citizen in my own country. You would think I was a criminal and needed to be behind bars.
Instead I am a law abiding citizen (though know our judicial system is corrupt and a joke), have always paid my taxes (to our increasingly money hungry government) and have had a long success career in the Corporate world (who cares now, I am retired and now do not have enough money to live on, unless I draw from my tiny retirement fund, which is penalized & taxed even more by the government) and contributed to society 3/4 of my life so far.
I did not mind a bit eating in the Smoking section of a restaurant, but when they put me out in the cold to smoke my ‘waiting for dinner’ cigarette and my ‘after dinner’ cigarette, I was beyond livid. I have smoked for 40 years, am 60 years old, ENJOY smoking, do not apologize for being a smoker, am and have always been considerate of others when smoking around them. Now I am being publicly ostracized, given rules where I can smoke & not smoke and being taxed??
This is DISCRIMINATION also……totally against and targeted towards smokers. I thought this new administration was going to get rid of discrimination? Was this only elimination of discrimination for one single group of people, the black people? What about this ever growing discrimination against smokers?????
Well, I am an adult and have the right to smoke. I feel my government is entering into my personal life, overtaking my rights and telling me what I can do and not do. I don’t like this one bit!!!!
So how did we get here? How have we allowed these fanatical groups, starting in California, to gain so much power and clout within our government and smokers have become targets and second rate citizens.
More drunk drivers kill people on the roads and sides of roads each day than people who smoke. This is just so messed up!!
I think we need to gather, rally and protest. Our car manufacturers are going down the tubes, and now the tobacco industies will be next. Why aren’t the tobacco companies helping us smokers and standing up for us? They have a louder and bigger voice than we individuals.
What did the blacks do when they felt they were being discriminated against? They formed the NAACP. Well, we smokers are most definitely being discriminated against also, our rights stomped on……..so where is our organized group to help us out? How can we form one?
They say the rate of teenagers smoking is on the rise. Ok, they will say they are targeting them also to make them quit while they are young…….but this should not affect us adults who have contributed our lives to this country, only to have our government turn on us like we are common criminals instead of citizens with the right to our choice of pleasures, which happens to be smoking.
And my last thought. If all these taxes on cigarettes are going to pay for children health costs ….. Does that mean each time we buy our cigarettes, we can collect these costs and deduct them as charitable donations on our annual income tax forms???????????
Pat Daz | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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What is next
Whats next take sugar away from us cause it causes diabetes. No fast food because it is bad for us. Someone has to stand up and not let this happen. We sign petitions does it really help? Let us vote at the very least. Let us as a whole stand together for our rights.
Mary | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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Are You Next?
All of these non-smokers who stand by and cheer as taxes are raised and smoking is banned in more and more places can’t see the writing on the walls. Once cigarettes are taxed to the point they aren’t affordable, the government will have to go elsewhere to recoup the loss of those tax dollars. What or who will be next? The obese and their Twinkies and Big Macs?
Last time I checked this was still America, land of the free, home of the brave. What has happened to us?
Donna Brunk | 11 months, 2 weeks ago
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