Candidates for the Ward 5 Council seat received grades ranging from “A” to “F” after filling out a Smokefree DC questionnaire that asked about everything from their willingness to support smokefree parks to how they would handle a query from a constituent grappling with secondhand smoke intrusion in their home.
Seven Council candidates completed the seven-item questionnaire. The election for the open seat will be held on May 15. Just one candidate, Kathy Henderson, received an “A.”
The seven questions were designed to test candidates’ knowledge of tobacco issues as well as their commitment to the rights of nonsmokers to breathe clean air.
We greatly appreciate the time that candidates spent to answer these questions. We are releasing these candidates’ answers so voters can learn where the candidates stand on a key health issue. Although the District has a strong smokefree workplace law, nonsmokers are still exposed to the toxins in secondhand smoke every day.
Candidates were graded on “A” to “F” scale, with “A” being the highest rating and “F” being the lowest. Candidates who did not return a questionnaire were given a “0” rating.
The grades were: Kathy Henderson – A; Drew E. Hubbard – B; Ruth Marshall – C; Kenyan McDuffie – D; Tim Day – D; Rae Zapata – D; Shelly Gardner – F.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing that all apartments and condos in the city be required to come up with a policy on smoking and make it clear to prospective buyers and tenants.
He stresses that this is not, we repeat not, a ban.
What would this law do? It would require apartment managers and condo boards to think about smoking, the hazards of secondhand smoke and the sticky issues that arise when one resident’s smoke invades another resident’s apartment. It would make clear where in the building people could and couldn’t smoke. And it would help people make informed decisions about where they want to live. After all, most people don’t smoke and don’t like breathing secondhand smoke.
Residents deserve to know whether they will be subject to these serious health risks before deciding whether to buy or rent a home. This legislation is an important complement to laws requiring smoke-free workplaces and public places and will further protect everyone’s right to breathe clean air.
Who knows, it might even prompt some condos and apartments to go smokefree.
Speaking of which, we are going to start a list of smokefree apartments and condos in the District. Know of any? Let us know.
A newly renovated, 34-story high-rise is opening in Detroit. Washington, D.C., can learn a little something from this new building in the Motor City.
Specifically, the building, called Broderick Tower, is opening with a strong smokefree policy.
No. 22 of the rules states: Smoking, of any kind, including medically prescribed marijuana, is not permitted at any time in the building, including entrances, driveways, all grounds, and including the premises.
Hallelujah.
We’re getting more and more inquiries here at Smokefree DC from people desperate because they are being made sick in their own apartments or condos by a neighbor who smokes.
Here’s our advice to property management companies and condo boards throughout D.C.: Go smokefree. Now. Don’t wait until there’s a problem.
In case you missed it, Channel 8 did a good piece last night on the dangers of secondhand smoke and the problems that nonsmokers in apartments and condos are increasingly experiencing with it.
Here at Smokefree DC, we get a regular – and increasing – stream of calls and emails from people who are desperate to know how to cope.
The answer isn’t easy. First, you can talk to the smoker and see if you can persuade him or her to smoke outside (I actually had luck with this a few years ago in my own building). If that doesn’t work, you can turn to the condo covenants committee or the apartment management. There should be rules that everyone lives by regarding nuisances. If you can’t have band practice in your apartment at 3 a.m. or grill on your balcony because those bother or endanger your neighbors, then it stands to reason that you can’t poison your neighbors either.
If that doesn’t work, you can turn to the condo board itself. After that, call a lawyer. Common law can help.
But it’s a long process. In Virginia, one unfortunate couple went so far as to move out of their Old Town Alexandria townhouse because the smoke got so bad. They have a small child and she is seven months pregnant. They are living with her parents. Check out their story.
Four candidates for D.C. Council have received “A” grades after filling out a questionnaire that asked about everything from their willingness to support smokefree parks to how they would handle a query from a constituent grappling with secondhand smoke intrusion in their home. Other candidates received grades ranging from “B” to “F.”
Fifteen Council candidates completed the seven-item questionnaire. D.C.’s primary will be held on April 3.
The seven questions were designed to test candidates’ knowledge of tobacco issues as well as their commitment to the rights of nonsmokers to breathe clean air. The full report card is here.
We greatly appreciate the time that candidates spent to answer these questions. Our goal in releasing this report card is to let voters know where the candidates stand on a key health issue. Secondhand smoke is a known health hazard. Although we have a strong smokefree workplace law here in the District, nonsmokers are still exposed to secondhand smoke every day. Continue reading Four D.C. Council candidates get ‘A’s on 2012 questionnaire
Want to make your condo building smokefree? You can.
The bottom line, according to a detailed column in The Washington Post, is that you need to amend your condominium documents. There are a lot of hurdles to doing so, but it’s feasible.
To avoid issues of secondhand smoke infiltrating nonsmokers’ units, it’s a good idea.
Wrote lawyer Benny L. Kass:
In condominium law, there is a hierarchy that must be followed by the board of directors and by a judge if there is litigation. The highest priority is a state’s condominium act. The condominium laws in the Washington area are designed to provide some flexibility for associations to adapt their rules to their particular situations.
This is good information because secondhand smoke seems to be an increasing problem in multi-unit dwellings. Here at Smokefree DC, we get a steady stream of calls and emails from people who are at their wit’s end because of a neighbor’s smoke entering their apartment. One person who called had moved out while trying to resolve the issue.
So says Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 1) about the D.C. Council’s inadvertent approval of online gambling, which was slipped into a budget bill by Councilmember Michael Brown (D-At Large).
When we caught up with him at the Wilson Building and urged him to do it the right way, he told us that if he tried to weaken the smokefree law via committee, “you would win.”
There you have it: A broken process. A hypocritical Councilmember.
A solution is needed to ensure Councilmembers stop thumbing their noses at the public. Perhaps the ballot box is the best one. We need viable candidates to run against incumbents, who currently can pull these kind of shenanigans off without consequences.
The Washington Post has a good story this week detailing how more nonsmokers who live in apartments and condos are speaking up about secondhand smoke intruding into their living spaces.
The article notes that while it used to be assumed that smokers have a right to smoke in their homes, more people are realizing that nonsmokers also have a right to breathe clean air in their homes.
Secondhand smoke is more than just a nuisance — it’s a health hazard. For children and people with asthma or compromised immune systems, secondhand smoke is particularly harmful.
The story quotes one resident whose young daughter has asthma:
I leave doors and windows open, even as I sleep … I’ve moved to sleep in my daughter’s room now because the other side of the apartment is full of smoke.
That’s just wrong. Sorry folks, but the right to breathe clean air in one’s home trumps the “right” to smoke in one’s home every time.
Secondhand smoke costs the state of Indiana $1.3 billion – yes, billion with a “b” — per year, a new study shows.
The study, by Indiana University’s School of Medicine, comes as the state considers enacting a smokefree workplace law.
Clearly, it should. The numbers alone are staggering – the cost of secondhand smoke amounts to $201 per Hoosier per year. And 1,400 of the 50,000 deaths that are attributable each year in the U.S. to secondhand smoke occur in Indiana.
The New York Times had an excellent story today about how housing authorities are increasingly going smokefree.
In 2005, 32 housing authorities had smokefree policies in effect. By the end of 2011, 285 will.
Cities that have or plan to make public housing smokefree: Boston (in September), Detroit, San Antonio and Portland, Ore.
The reason?
The bans are largely a response to the risks posed to nonsmokers by secondhand smoke. In addition, property managers say smokeless apartments are cheaper to clean, especially if there is carpeting, and reduce the risk of fire.
The story notes the increasing awareness of the health harms of secondhand smoke migrating from one apartment to another. Although the story has a quote from a smoker concerned about her supposed rights (there is no right to smoke, btw), it recognizes that there are other people in the picture (tenants) who have rights too (the right to breathe clean air, for instance).
New York City has not yet enacted a smokefree policy in its public housing.
Washington, D.C.? Of course not. This is the city that just permanently weakened its smokefree law via a budget amendment.
