Sorry, you can't smoke in your own apartment

y100.com ^ | Aug. 30, 2010

[Free ThinkerNY]

TACOMA, Wash., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Officials in Washington state say they'll consider moving the health battle over secondhand smoke into a new and contentious arena -- people's homes.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Board will consider a proposal next month to classify secondhand smoke as a "nuisance" in multi-unit housing, The Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune reported Monday.

Backers of the measure say they want it incorporated in the state's landlord-tenant law.

"This is the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be placed," Nan Hogan, who helped write the proposed legislation, said. "We've got smoke-free motel rooms, smoke-free restaurants, smoke-free bars, smoke-free office buildings and even prisons. Why should we go home and have to breathe it there?"

Hogan is a member of the group People United for Smoke-free Housing.

In most multi-family structures, the group says, there is no practical way to seal one apartment from another.

[GOP_Lady]

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, we now have in New York City -- dadelut dadelut dadelut dadelut! -- CAFE standards for cafes! WCBS-TV Channel 2 in New York is reporting that the mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has declared a "War on Salt." New York City Mayor Bloomberg has called "on US manufacturers to reduce the salt content until it results in a 50% reduction in salt in ten years." Now, the subhead here is:  "Citizens revolt, claim New York City is turning into a Nanny State." See, at some point these liberals will overreach, even with their own supporters and minions. First it was what?  Trans fat?  No, it was smoking, and then trans fats and all these others things. So yeah, total Nanny State in New York City.

[Outlaw Woman]

Good Point..let the private sector accomodate.

[libertarian27]

I’m one Freeper who affirms this law.

Curious as to what other laws you affirm on other people's private property - that being the landlord in this case.

My wife and I lived three months in an apartment over a smoking woman.

was she on fire ;)

It was terrible, and contributed to my wife’s pregnancy nausia.

What other things contributed to her nausea? List them, we'll see if we can get them banned too.

We moved because it was intolerable, even though we had several air filters and spread baking soda everywhere.

Isn't it a great country still? You can move at will - Heck, you can even buy your own house.

When you live in a communal situation, you need to be considerate of your community.

What type of people will you not allow in your community. Never mind, shouldn't have asked that, you were renting, it's not your house and you were just visiting that community.

[Jack Hammer]

Unless you’re smoking marijuana.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

[Outlaw Woman]

Apartment (communal living) is different and I can understand to a degree why a law like this would be favored but like another poster pointed out let the private sector take care of it and market it that way. More government is not the answer and never has been and we as conservatives should not back laws that continually intrude & regulate any of our lives.

[taxtruth]

It’s like a noisy neighbor that no one did anything about and all you can do is move like I did while I even owned the condo outright.Buy a house in the country.

[Grams A]

you need to be considerate of your community.”

Yes you do but IMO, requiring that someone accommodate only your special wishes is not being considerate. The same arguments that are made about smokers can also apply to the difference between people with children and those without in an apartment complex. If people want to have all these behavior modification rules, they should not live in a community-type environment.

[Ken H]

Posts #11 and #14...

It makes my day to see a thread where these points are made. Keep up the good work!

[Jeff Chandler]

This should be up to the owner of the apartments, just as it should be up to the owners of the restaurants and bars.

[Squawk 8888]

I have yet to hear a good explanation [Constitutionally-based] of these agencies existence.

Not necessarilly a good explanation, but probably the real one: Back in 1919(?) when Prohibition was passed, the courts respected the Constitution enough to give legislators pause. By 1936, with the way Roosevelt was packing the Supreme Court, such a formality as an amendment to the Constitution was no longer considered necessary.

[AnalogReigns]

When you live in a communal situation, you need to be considerate of your community.

Except, apparently, if you smoke. Then, it's always everybody else's fault if they don't like the smell of your cigarettes. Freedom apparently requires the rest of us to put up with having other people stink up our clothes.

Actually no. Freedom means the government doesn't force you to live in any one way.

You don't own an apartment (like you don't own a restaurant, or a business)...and each person FREELY chooses to live there (go there, or work there) or not. If you don't like the immigrants next door who are always cooking with garlic, than, you move.

If you didn't notice them...or the smoker below you, when you signed the lease...well, you learn a lesson in the future to check, and it's not the government's or the landlord's fault.

Simple--instead of forcing others USING COPS WITH GUNS (as government power is always ultimately through force...) to live like you live, you FREELY (no guns involved here) choose carefully who you live around.

Theo and wife did the right--and only--thing that upholds freedom, if it's not your property, you don't make the rules, and if you don't like it for whatever the reason, you move.

After all, since you don't OWN the apartment, you don't have a RIGHT to lease it dictating your own conditions. Conditions for a lease (or a purchase) are AS IS.

I don't like hearing neighbors through walls. So does that mean I make the government force apartment-builders to build expensive-sound proof walls? No....I just find an apartment with thick walls, and or quiet neighbors, or I buy a house.

It reminds me of the new subdivision built near where I used to live in N. Virginia...right next to a rock quarry. The quarry was there 30 years before the subdivision was built, but of course their homeowners association complained at all the truck traffic and dust--when, I'm sorry, THEY FREELY CHOSE TO LIVE THERE! BUYER BEWARE!

Let me repeat: IF YOU DON'T OWN IT, YOU DON'T MAKE THE RULES. (and that applies to government too).

I swear the spoiled baby-boomers will allow REAL fascism to creep in hurting us all--just so they never ever catch a whiff of smoke.

Anyone who doesn't understand the sanctity of property rights in this, and the danger of having government regulate what a person can do in his own home, has no right to identify themselves as CONSERVATIVE, period.

[Theo]

We rented the place sight-unseen. When we arrived, the smoke smell from the person below us was nearly intolerable. We hated it, and tried everything to get rid of the smell. We broke our rental agreement after 3 months and moved. It was SO inconsiderate of the cigarette smoker below to ruin OUR experience in our apartment. She had no right to make our lives miserable. And she did make our lives miserable during the 3 months that we lived there.

[Theo]

Of course people have a right to their private property.

But when people make other people’s private property unlivable because they blow their smoke into that property, their rights end.

Yes, we moved. We didn’t bring a lawsuit. We hated the smoke, and moved.

What “type of people” will we not allow in my community? Those people who ruin my home by their smoke. They ruin *my* home by *their* smoke.

I used to be pretty fine with people killing themselves by smoking. I still am, until it ruins my standard of living. They have no right to ruin my home. No right to ruin my home and hurt my wife.

[Theo]

You’re right. We did move out, and purchased our own home.

[Theo]

Laws restricting your freedoms can be good.

You are not allowed to burn down your home if it’ll spread to my home and burn it down as well.

You are not allowed to play music at 110 decibels at midnight, since that noise would affect me.

You are not allowed to do things in your home that directly affect me, such as pour smoke into my home.

There are limits to free expression. Let’s be reasonable: You can’t shout “fire” in a crowded theater. You have limits to what you can do within your property. You have the right to swing your fist. But it STOPS when it reaches my face. When it does, you’re in trouble.

Seriously, isn’t blowing smoke in someone’s face an insult? And if that someone is pregnant, isn’t that adding injury to insult? Is that not uncaring, unloving?

Yes, we conservatives care about freedom. But we also care about our neighbors, not simply about our freedoms and bank accounts.

Look how long I’ve been a FReeper before responding in anger ...

[Catsrus]

IMO, booze is more detrimental to families and neighbors that cigarette smoking. Anyone ever witnessed cops at an apartment complex where drunks are out of control?

These people are whacked! They strain at a straw and swallow a camel.

[Catsrus]

I meant to type, strain at a gnat. I have no idea where the word straw came from. LOL

[Joe 6-pack]

"We rented the place sight-unseen. When we arrived, the smoke smell from the person below us was nearly intolerable. We hated it, and tried everything to get rid of the smell. We broke our rental agreement after 3 months and moved. It was SO inconsiderate of the cigarette smoker below to ruin OUR experience in our apartment. She had no right to make our lives miserable. And she did make our lives miserable during the 3 months that we lived there."

So she was there before you. You moved in without checking the place out, and she and the landlord are suppose to change the way they live and do business just to accomodate you and your failure to determine the suitability of the apartment to your needs before signing the lease?

I would argue that you made your lives miserable, but that's not as easy to accept as it is to simply blame somebody else.

[NoLibZone]

Then, gay sex should also be banned form the apartment complex.

Second hand Syphilis is far worse than second hand smoke.

[Daffynition]

If a Republican doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t buy one.
If a Democrat doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat.
If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a Republican doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Democrats demand that those they don’t like be shut down.

If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his.