Group makes PUSH for smoke-free housing

TACOMA — The fight over smoking restrictions in Washington state has moved from bars and office buildings to private residences.

The News Tribune reports that a group called People United for Smoke-Free Housing (PUSH) has asked the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Board to classify secondhand smoke as a "nuisance" in multi-unit housing, because smoke can seep from one apartment to another and bother other residents. That could allow landlords to evict people for smoking.

The proposal, which backers hope to have inserted into the state's landlord-tenant law, is one of dozens of attempts in communities around the country to extend no-smoking restrictions to rental housing.

"This is the last piece of the puzzle that needs to be placed," said Nan Hogan of University Place, who helped write the proposed legislation. "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?"

PUSH wants the board to pass the proposal, so it then can use it as ammunition in efforts to make a statewide change in the law.

Opponents argue that such proposals are unnecessary because landlords already can declare their apartments smoke-free.

"This is political correctness run amok," said Gary Nolan, U.S. director of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, which advocates for smokers' rights. "They're taking away the rights of the landlord. We have a republic, and they're telling this guy what he can do with his private property."

Under the proposal, PUSH says, tenants bothered by smoke could make complaints. Just as with other nuisances under the law — such as destroying property and using drugs — offenders could be given three days' notice to move out. If they didn't move, the landlord could go to court and start an eviction process.

The state Department of Health says 86 percent of renters in Washington prefer smoke-free housing and that 500 children younger than age 5 get asthma in the state every year from breathing secondhand smoke.

Nationally, 27 local jurisdictions have passed ordinances limiting or prohibiting smoking altogether in multiunit rentals, including eight cities in California.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and its board, which will look at the proposal at a study session Sept. 15, have historically taken the lead on anti-smoking issues.

The department's former director, Dr. Federico Cruz-Uribe, banned most outside advertising of tobacco products in 1996, then created a furor in 2003 by banning smoking in most indoor public places, including the county's bars, restaurants and bowling alleys.

The Washington State Supreme Court threw out Pierce County's ban, but two years later it became the model for a successful statewide initiative against indoor smoking.

The department's current director, Dr. Anthony Chen, supports the idea of smoke-free apartments but worries the legislation could have unintended consequences. It could unfairly affect low-income people and minorities, groups more likely to be smokers and also more likely to be renters, he said.