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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what's worse?
I’m a smoker and an avid bicyclist. I bike to and from work and school every day. You know what’s worse than cigarette smoke? car exhaust… Next time you have the chance, stand next to a busy street and take a nice deep breath. The dangers of cigarette smoke pale in comparison and I think a more useful, practical ban would be against car exhaust. This ban promotes hateful propaganda against smokers just like the anti-marijuana adds and, likewise, has very little rhyme or reason to it. I agree that smoking near a child is probably not the best thing to do and I am conscious that my smoke effects others, which is why it’s nice to do it in a private setting – like a home… The city of Belmont is attacking a small fish because they can, not because it’s right.
hydrazine | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Right is right and wrong is wrong
Government is messed up again! We should take away all their rights. They are trying to play GOD.
Sharon Couch | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Smoking in apartment.
I’m totally fascinated…
Ok, let’s determine that I decide on an extended visit to Belmont. Next, I rent an apartment. NOW, I smoke in the apartment.
Mabel” next door calls me in.
HOW are you going to PROVE that I was smoking in the apartment? (Note: we will assume I was bright enough to buy an air filter and hit the place real quick with something that kills cigarette odor the SECOND I heard… “Open up… it’s the police.”)
So… here I am, with the nice officers standing OUTSIDE my apartment… while I ask questions… like… “Umm… nice evening officer, what are you doing here?”
The officers sniff me and determine that they smell like smoke. Smelling like smoke isn’t a CRIME… at least not yet.
Next… there has to be a warrant to search for smoke. I suppose they could do air quality samples but how MANY ppm or ppb make me flunk? MEANWHILE, they must also do an air quality sample on Mabel’s apartment. If they want to get creative, they can also take samples of my paint/wallpaper/paneling. That’s a lot of lab time for a hundred dollar fine.
Then, they will have to process the paperwork. That I PRESUME was turned in by the landlord with professionally taken samples that show that no one has EVER smoked in the apartment OR it was cleaned by a certified smoke removal technician.
We will also have to rule out other items that CAUSE smoke, including incense, burning tires, stove fires, grease fires, candles… anything that MIGHT have caused the smoke.
Now, we have just tied up at least one officer, if not two; given the lab a bunch of interesting stuff to do; and, we STILL haven’t figured out if Mabel can tell the smell of cigarette smoke from that toast I caught on fire a few minutes ago.
If it was me, I’d spend the couple bucks on a smudge stick and some salt, swing the door WIDE OPEN, and invite the officers to come in. do they think I got rid of the evil spirits in my apartment? Couple three or four calls on that one and it’s all over for Mabel: she’s a crank. I’m some sort of flakey nut and I can smoke, no questions asked.
If it’s a stupid law, mess with their heads, make it so EXPENSIVE to enforce, it isn’t worth it.
Now… who is having a junk car delivered? Which is CLEARLY against the ‘junk car’ ordinance? Of course… once that thing gets turned into a fountain/planter… with some political slogans on it… ohh… NOW it’s ART, and FREE SPEECH… time to take me to court… or give up. If you want AMERICA BACK, you need to FIGHT BACK.
Katheryn Reich | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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United States
This is great finally, hope that it happens in my city in Lakewood, Colorado! I have asthma, people smoke in their apt units and the smoke travels thru the vents or windows. It is awful. My hair smells, my clothes and I get physically sick, and can not breathe. It is a proven fact that second-hand smoke is worse than smoking period. It is a good law,
SheilaAnnDavis | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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good law
If people don’t like smoke, they should move!
sharon couch | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Free Country
No one should have the right to restrict anything we do in our own homes, it is evil to have someone come into your apartment when you are not home and snoop, it is evil to pass laws that are telling people that they can’t smoke, if they want to it should be their choice.
I am a non smoker, and we need to stop trying to control people by passing laws like this one. Most people that I know go outside to smoke because they are concerned about offending others, Human beings are usually considerate of others and are willing to go outside, but if they do not want to go outside open a window and light up no problem. When society wants to control everything that we do it is no longer a free society. This should be the issue that is most important, we need freedom to make our live what we want them to be.
Free Country is what we Americans wanted but we have done many awful thing to the poor in trying to restrict what we can and can’t do in the name of because we own these apartments you the tenant have no civil rights. We need to take back our civil right now.
Esther | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Violating pursuit of happines
The Constitution says that the Government shall create no law interfering with persons Right to Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness. I think they have already Violated Mine. The Constitution says “We The People” are Supposed to Overthrow the Government And Start A New Form Of Government And The Government Is Suppose To Abolish them Selves From Office. Until the people get united Against the Government there is not much we can do. For the people are divided every one is out for them selves and as long as the government keeps us divided they can pass any law they want. No one really knows how to protect them selves against the government. So they tell people what they can and cannot put in their bodies. What they can and cannot do. The FDA has a lot to do with it. There also segments of the populations that don’t do what we do. But they want us to do what they do. So they enforce there will upon us. We ether adhere to what they want find another way to live. We are the smokers we don’t try to push smoking on them we don’t go where they are they normally come where we are. In the bar there is normally smoking. They come to the bar and don’t like the smell the smoke the health risk of second hand smoke. I say than build your own nonsmoking bar. Don’ t go to the bar where smoking is allowed. Go to the one where smoking is not allowed. We don’t go where they are. They come where we are. We don’t blow smoke in their face. So why should we have to leave where we are. It is those that don’t smoke enforcing their will on us!
Dante Claude Lee | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Rights of Non-smokers And Smokers
First let me say that I am a non-smoker. I firmly believe, however, that if a person chooses to smoke, they have that right. I am in favor of laws banning smoking in all public places (I have chosen to not smoke and I don’t want to be forced to breathe second hand smoke) but to deny one’s right to smoke in their own home is not right.
Pattie | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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Secondhand smoke is political science
I read the studies, the ones the American Cancer Society tampered with and ones out of their reach. Find them, read them. The “danger” of secondhand smoke is worse; political science than truth. The non-US studies present a clearer and more sensible picture. We Americans have just become stupid, stupid, stupid – and we seem to enjoy the stupor.
Texas Tommy | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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I do not smoke
Fred,
I do not smoke. I am in the U.S. Military, and work for Homeland Defense. I want you to know that the least of our worries are the smoking laws. However, the government is slowly taking away every right that we do have granted to us under the U.S. Constitution.
The problem being addressed to all Americans has to do with the justification of our civil rights and liberties. No person/group in this country is willing to stand up for what they believe in anymore. We now have traffic cameras on every other stoplight, helmet laws on motor cycles, and smoking laws that are absurd. Let me tell you something: we have our rights for a reason granted by our Forefathers and that is what makes this country great. All activists need to take a look at what they actually have, how they came about to having it, and how these things affect their everyday lives. People in the present culture need to realize that we are great for one reason and one reason only.
I would seriously hope if you feel this way, you get the heck out of our country, and consider yourself un-American. You are the problem with society today; people like you make me sick.
Derek | 11 months, 3 weeks ago
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