No smoking law could be expanded

Some nonsmokers in Calabasas don't want tobacco smoke drifting into their apartments from a neighbor's unit.

Calabasas made worldwide news when it rolled out its secondhand smoke ordinance in March. The ordinance prohibits smoking in all public areas of the city including parks, sidewalks and outdoor businesses where people are expected to gather.

Designated smoking outposts are the only exception to the law. Critics call the law too tough. Others want additional regulations.

At a recent Calabasas City Council meeting, Ester Schiller, director of SAFE (Smoke-free Air For Everyone), told council members, "Our organization has been trying since 1995 to help people who are suffering because of a neighbor 's tobacco smoke that's drifting into their apartment home.

"Right now," Schiller said, "there's no solution for this problem of drifting tobacco smoke in apartments, unless the apartment owner designates some smokefree sections or buildings. Most (apartment owners) do not, even though it's legal."

Schiller said her organization set up www.smokefreeapartments.org, a smoke-free apartment house registry that lists about 270 apartment complexes-mostly in California- that have designated smoke-free apartment buildings. Schiller hopes to expand the number of smoke-free units, she said.

In a recent survey of 126 Calabasas apartment residents, Schiller said 32.5 percent of those surveyed said tobacco smoke had wafted into their apartment in the past year. Of those people, 56 percent said they or someone in their household has a medical condition that's been made worse by the exposure to tobacco smoke.

"But very few (of these people) have complained to management," Schiller said. "So management may not see this as a problem in need of a solution."

The recent survey also asked Calabasas residents if they'd like to live in the nonsmoking section of an apartment building or in a totally smoke-free building if such a place were available.

"A very large percentage said 'yes,'" Schiller said. "We asked if they'd be in favor of laws requiring nonsmoking sections or nonsmoking buildings (in apartment complexes), including the units. Again, a very large percentage said 'yes.'"

If apartment owners designated smoke-free areas, healthy living conditions would be preserved for future tenants, according to Steve Gallegos of the American Heart Association.

"I myself recently moved from North Hollywood to Glendale and in looking for an apartment, it was interesting to have to go into a lot of apartments where people have actually smoked," Gallegos said.

"You could smell (smoke) in the carpet, in the walls, in the popcorn ceiling and sometimes even in the paint of the apartments. It was rather disgusting to try and find a place that you would consider clean that you would want to move into."

Gallegos said that cotinine, which is a by-product of nicotine, will seep into the carpet lining pads and other materials in a home and remain there. He said children who live in a household that either has had a smoker can get sick from cotinine.

"This is what (experts) call third-hand smoke," Gallegos said. "It's poison."

An 18-year-old's complaint to the Calabasas City Council about secondhand smoke exposure at The Commons shopping center in Calabasas led to the creation of the Calabasas secondhand smoke ordinance. It's very possible that those irritated by secondhand smoke in apartments will get similar results.

"We get calls on a daily basis from people who are suffering from their neighbors' tobacco smoke," Schiller said. "They say things like, 'For heaven's sake, there's no smoking allowed in California prisons, why am I being forced to breathe tobacco smoke in my apartment?'"

When Calabasas discussed and adopted its secondhand smoke ordinance, only one person who opposed the law spoke before the city council.

Residents and businesses in the city were surveyed, and practically everyone was in favor of such a law, according to Maureen Tamuri, Calabasas Community Development director. She said complaints about the ordinance came mostly from people living outside of Calabasas.

The Calabasas City Council will discuss secondhand smoke in apartment buildings-with possible discussion of a new ordinance-in October.