New law called burden for elderly smokers

SPOKANE — The state's tough new anti-smoking law has an unlikely opponent: a retired doctor who argues the ban is forcing elderly smokers in nursing homes to take unnecessary risks.

Dr. Robert Guild, 71, says the law is forcing him and other smokers at the Maplewood Gardens Retirement Apartments — some in wheelchairs and walkers — to brave an ice- and snow-covered lawn to get to a structure that is far enough away from the main building to meet the ban's requirements.

The smokers have dubbed the structure "the Butt Hut" and argue that it is a poor replacement for the well-ventilated smoking lounge that management had provided before the ban on indoor smoking went into effect in December.

"There's overhead heating, but it's very inconvenient, and there are no facilities," Guild said, noting that restrooms are important for folks his age.

The state's smoking ban is the strictest in the country. In addition to banning smoking indoors, it requires a 25-foot smoke-free buffer around doorways, windows that open and ventilation intakes.

Guild started smoking cigars after he retired from private practice and his teaching position at Michigan State University. He estimated about 20 percent of Maplewood Gardens' 190 residents smoke.

He said it is irksome to be told you can't smoke in your own home and that those who wrote the clean-indoor-air initiative "ought to be shot." But he said he's willing to negotiate.

"Give us our smoking room back and all is forgiven," Guild told the Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane.

Other assisted-living facilities, nursing homes and adult family homes also are struggling with the law.

"I doubt that many people knew that this would exclude any smoking by people living in places like this," said Jeff Crollard, an attorney for the state's Long-Term Care Ombudsman program.