Secondhand smoke in multi-unit housing

By Elizabeth Ferris and Manuel Andrade

Smoke is pervasive and can float through shared venting, cracks in the walls, electrical outlets, open windows, and it even sneaks through the spaces around shared plumbing.

In our work with multi-unit housing (MUH) residents, we have heard some amazing stories about the traveling capabilities of secondhand smoke. For example, one woman had smoke coming into her condo from her downstairs neighbor through the open areas around her bathroom and kitchen sink plumbing. Another resident was reduced to sleeping in their bathtub with towels stuffed under the bathroom door because it was the only room in their apartment that didn’t fill with secondhand smoke from their neighbor at night when they wanted to go to sleep. Sadly, these stories are common, and we hear others like them on a daily basis because many of those living in MUH are suffering from daily secondhand-smoke exposure.

The U.S. Surgeon General has stated that there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. It is highly toxic, containing over 4,000 chemicals, all of which are linked to adverse health effects including lung cancer and heart disease. Currently, smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the world. In the U.S. alone, smoking causes 480,000 deaths per year. Even if one were to combine all yearly deaths from other causes of preventable death — including infectious disease, murder, alcohol and illicit drug use — the number still wouldn’t come close to the smoking death toll.

More shockingly, secondhand smoke leads to around 50,000 deaths each year. These are deaths of those continuously subjected to smoke indirectly, meaning they are not physically smoking themselves; they are simply surrounded by others that smoke and are unable to get away from it.

So what is being done to help with this important health issue? Councilmember Marti Emerald, Chair of the Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee, has appointed a task force to help find a solution that would protect MUH residents of the City of San Diego from tobacco and marijuana secondhand smoke. Currently there are 39 cities and counties that have implemented smoke-free legislation in California for their MUH properties. While the task force in San Diego is working diligently to create an ordinance, the passing of this ordinance could benefit from the support of residents who can speak up and help advocate for a legislative solution.

Below are some steps that you can take to help advocate for smoke-free legislation in the City of San Diego:

Call your local representative, attend a City Council meeting and ask for solutions. Explain that you are suffering from secondhand-smoke exposure and you want them to find a solution. If you don’t know your City Representative click the link and look them up by zip code: sandiego.gov/citycouncil/

Contact representatives of the Public Safety Committee at: sandiego.gov/citycouncil/committees/psln/

Most importantly, contact us, the San Diego Smoke-Free Project! We can assist and guide you through the advocacy process, especially if you are an apartment manager or an HOA having issues with secondhand smoke at your property. We can also help you with adopting a voluntary smoke-free policy.

— For further support please contact The San Diego Smoke-Free Project at 619-283-9624 and ask for Manuel Andrade (Ext.215)/ [email protected] or Elizabeth Ferris (Ext. 296)/ [email protected].

Letters

McTernan Doggie bag dispensers

I would like to thank the McTernan Real Estate Group for putting up doggy bag dispensers in the North Park area (See Vol. 6 Issue 8 “Encouraging doggie bag due diligence”).

I live in the area and it is a huge, consistent problem. I always pick up after my dog. If, on the rare off chance, she goes twice while on a walk, and I don’t have another bag, I go back after we get home and pick it up.

I find it absolutely inexcusable that people do not pick up after their dogs. It is selfish, disgusting, rude and insensitive to other people in the neighborhood.

— Melanie Ross via email

Correction:

In last issue’s article “The community organizations of Kensington and Talmadge,” (Vol. 6 Issue 8) it was incorrectly stated that the Kensington-Talmadge Community Association organizes the community’s “Holiday at Home/Memorial Day Parade.” This event is and has always been put on by the Kensington Social and Athletic Club. We regret this error.