No Smoking!

A new petition to limit and/or eliminate any right to smoke in or around apartment buildings has begun. Recently, P.U.S.H. (People United against Smoke-Free Housing) asked the Tacoma –Pierce County Health Department to classify smoking as a nuisance under Washington’s Land Lord Tenant Act. This would give property owners the right to evict tenants for smoking. This push, no pun intended, started when tenants complained that their health problems including mild cases of asthma were caused by the smoking habits of their neighbors. In some of these cases, tenants who were sensitive to smoke were forced to move. The Pierce-County Health Department was set to review the proposal yesterday, Sept 15, 2010. There has been no report of the County’s position on the proposal. The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department backed the campaign in 2005 for a smoke free Washington, which helped pass Initiative 901, prohibiting smoking in all public places or within 25 feet of buildings. If History repeats itself, we may soon be required to comply with a new addendum to the Land Lord Tenant Act of Washington State, declaring all apartments or multifamily units as smoke free zones. There have been 27 other jurisdictions around the country that elected to pass the ordinance that limits or restricts smokers in and around multifamily units. For more information on tenant and landlord rights, please visit a smokefreewashington.com