San Mateo County bans smoking inside apartments, condos and townhomes

[alp227]

Smoking either tobacco or electronic cigarettes will be prohibited inside apartments, condominiums and townhomes in unincorporated areas of San Mateo County under a ban approved 4-1 Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

Supervisors Carole Groom and Adrienne Tissier pushed the ordinance, which outlaws smoking inside and around multiple-unit buildings with one or more shared ceilings, floors, walls or ventilation systems. The ordinance also applies to any such buildings owned or leased by the county, regardless of where they are located.

Second-hand smoke that wafts between rooms poses a danger to other occupants in the same building, according to county health officials.

"We have a responsibility as a county to protect the health of our residents," Tissier said.

full: http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_26774441/san-mateo-county-bans-smoking-inside-apartments-condos

Good on San Mateo County for protecting residents' right not to breathe others' filth.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Now if they would do something about that freeway

and the airplanes roaring overhead taking off from the SF airport.

[SheilaT]

2. I am a very dedicated anti smoker.

But this is a very large reach. However, it's not exactly breaking news that smoking is bad for you, and that opinion against it has been growing for about 40 years now.

[ColesCountyDem]

3. I see a court challenge in the very near future. n/t

[nc4bo]

4. Ecigs, really?

Last edited Wed Oct 22, 2014, 09:25 AM - Edit history (1)

How fucking stupid can you get?

Next, ban air freshners, incense, oil warmers, obnoxiously stinky dryer sheets..........but allow medical mj?





Edit for missing an adjective.

[JustAnotherGen]

7. Good point on the incense

Hell - Candles if left unattended pose a serious threat.

They must not 'own' Condos in that area. I.E. - Rentals only?

[Codeine]

5. Who smokes indoors anyway?

I don't have any friends who smoke but many of my co-workers do and they all go outside even when they're at home. Doing it indoors takes an already disgusting habit makes it exponentially worse even to them.

[bigwillq]

6. I never smoke inside.

If I want to smoke, I go outside.

[bluedigger]

9. People who don't live in sunny CA, maybe.

Contrary to the assumptions of the favored ones who live in the land of milk and honey, much of the country is cold and wet for much of the year, and the residents don't quit smoking from October to April.

[NuclearDem]

12. Indeed.

Try being a smoker in Omaha during snowpocalypse.

[pipi_k]

10. I'm finding it increasingly more common

that people are not smoking inside anymore...even their own homes.

The only one I know personally is a friend of Mr Pipi's. He went to a birthday party there a couple of weeks ago and brought me back a piece of birthday cake in a plastic container with matching top.

When I opened the top, I could smell cigarette smoke on the inside. Yech.

[Sivafae]

14. At the complex I work at, the smokers have to all the way outside the complex.

With all the toxins and poisons we have in the air, why is smoking the only thing anyone does anything about? I mean I was just reading up the other day that the fumes from diesel trucks are a suspected carcinogen, the evidence is conclusive and not conclusive. Or what about all the toxins in the fish that are fished off the coast in San Mateo county? There are so many man-made toxins in our environment, do they really think cigarette smoke, a whopping 18% of people smoke, is the only danger? Is that the only thing causing lung cancer?

"Lung cancer accounts for about 27% of all cancer deaths and is by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined. " from Cancer.org

All this from 18% of the population?

I question everything. I have no issue with people who are anti-smoking, however, there seems to be a disconnect that we live in a poisoned environment with some of them and some scientists. That somehow, if we get rid of smoking, no one will get lung cancer.

[Generic Other]

21. To me it's more about the smell lingering on my person

I know secondhand smoke risks are the larger issue, but I just hate to be made to stink because of someone else's habit. I also hate perfume that overpowers the airspace, patchouli oil (choke), those big truck drivers whose mufflers are huge and seem designed to aim the exhaust in your car's air intake.

I am not so good with bad smells.

[seveneyes]

8. Imbeciles are running San Mateo County

Banning ecigs makes about as much sense as banning breathing. Complete morons are running the show.

[CreekDog]

15. puffing on an e-cig is not the same as breathing

that is one of the stupidest comparisons I've ever seen printed on DU.

so you might want to reconsider the "imbecile" word, when saying something that dumb.

[beevul]

24. It isnt the same as smoking either.

Guess you're ok with that comparison.

[Starry Messenger]

17. Good. Don't move here.

[snooper2]

20. most people can't when you have to pay $600 a square foot for a shack LOL

[NuclearDem]

11. They're aware, of course, that what an ecig smoker exhales is basically just water vapor...right?

[CreekDog]

18. no, they exhale the chemicals in the e-cig.

apparently you think that e-cigs only contain water and rainbows.

so "just water vapor...right?"

wrong. but don't let facts or science get in the way of your gut reaction.

[beevul]

25. "they exhale the chemicals in the e-cig."

"they exhale the chemicals in the e-cig."

The implication is clear: "They exhale chemicals at levels harmful to others".

Support your implication, mister "facts and science".

Or is that only required of everyone else?

[CreekDog]

31. you know what?

i don't feel like arguing with someone who posts conservative talking points.

[beevul]

37. Calling it "conservative talking points" doesn't make it so.

Calling it "conservative talking points" doesn't make it so.

How telling, that within a few posts you go from leaning on ""facts and science", to characterizing the asking of substantiation of that very same "facts and science" "concervative talking points".

It must burn you, that the majority of people who post on the topic of e-cigs here on DU support their use.

Let me guess...that's a conservative talking point, right?

[NuclearDem]

32. ...in such insignificant amounts it might as well be.

Which is why this indoor ecig ban is completely ridiculous.

[CreekDog]

36. what concentration of what chemical are you referring to as insignificant?

[Throd]

13. Nanny-state ninnies.

[CreekDog]

16. so you consider any rules or laws against smoking, "nanny state" stuff?

[Throd]

19. Not at all. But in this case, it's bullshit.

I don't smoke and don't care for the smell of cigarettes, but people should be able to smoke a legal product in the privacy of their own homes.

[hifiguy]

27. This 1000% this. n/t

[Union Scribe]

34. Except when they're in an apartment etc

it doesn't stay "in their own homes".

[Eleanors38]

22. Behind "health" excuses lurk standard morals-based prohibitions.

As predicted years ago, tobacco use will be the new prohibition. And it WILL be just that:

PROHIBITION.

Standard, orthodox, history-repeats-itself, fill-in-the-blank Prohibition.

[tabbycat31]

23. I can agree with this decision

Of course this is coming from someone who never smoked and never saw the desire to.

When I was looking at apartments last year, there were some of them that had obviously been smoked in by the previous tenants. The complexes were very defensive about it. For owner-occupied, I can understand smoking inside, but not for rentals.

[hifiguy]

26. I have never smoked in my life, do not like cigarette smoking,

and I think this is completely ridiculous. This is the kind of over-reaching nanny-state bullshit that gives lefties a bad name. Not being able to engage in a legal activity in the living space you are PAYING FOR is pseudo-totalitarian.

[Orrex]

28. The should outlaw the words "cigarette" and "tobacco"

Anything less is preposterous.

PREPOSTEROUS!

[lunasun]

29. Gonna guess some here never lived in apts. with common vents and thin walls but can't say

I think this law is right or wrong IMO really
On the fence as it is rights vs rights
If they go outside they could be around mutual open windows

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

30. If you own your own home and have your own ventilation system

and the two go hand in hand, I don't see how this could survive a court challenge.

[Oktober]

33. In other news, County Officials enacted a mandatory bed time of 8:30 PM...

Said one board member "Well, people were staying up just too darn late and it's usually a school night! Also, the folks that were staying up till all hours were shuffling around and keeping the decent folks awake! What else could we do? It's for the children!"

[KamaAina]

35. Most of San Mateo County, by far, is in 20 or so incorporated cities

which would each have to enact their own bans.