I have been meaning to blog about this issue for quite sometime but today my good friend “Crucial Thoughtz” (as seen before on many of my posts) just released his new DC Tobacco Free PSA on Secondhand Smoke:
How would you like to be paying a small fortune for a studio apartment only to be plagued by second-hand smoke?
You go to bed coughing, sneezing, mentally unstable from yelling at your neighbors that you can’t locate where the plooms of smoke is coming from?
You wake up coughing, sneezing, congested, gasping for air? Imagine also if you had asthma and allergies!
That is what it is like living in the CLARIDGE HOUSE, here in Washington DC.
I think what my favorite part is that after sending countless e-mails to the “Community Manager” he has literally done nothing. But my favorite is the bottom of his signature line on his e-mail states this:
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
It has been a true slap in the face. He doesn’t live here, nor do the “Board Members.”
After a law student and myself passed a petition around and not spending day and night on the issue because we are both in school- we figured that the board would at the very least have the courtesy of meeting with us. NOT AT ALL. They gave us TWO MINUTES each. They nodded to appease us.
My favorite was then speaking to one of the on-site “managers” who stated:
“you see we can’t ask private owners of condo’s to not smoke in their condo’s”
1. SMOKERS are not a protected class
Protected Classes are: Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation, Color, National Origin, DISABILITY, Age, Veteran, Sex, Familial Status (for housing purposes)
2. Smoking is a Nuisance
Something that interferes with the use of property by being irritating, offensive, obstructive or dangerous. Nuisances include a wide range of conditions, everything from a chemical plant’s noxious odors to a neighbor’s dog barking. The former would be a “public nuisance,” one affecting many people, while the other would be a “private nuisance,” limited to making your life difficult, unless the dog was bothering others.
Most cases in court have been upheld that have gone to court in regards when individuals have sued smokers that are infringing on OUR (non-smokers) lives.
3. DC Fair Housing Act
(B) a refusal to make reasonable accommodations in rules, policies, practices, or services, when such accommodations may be necessary to afford such person equal opportunity to use and enjoy a dwelling; or
(3) section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973;
(1) Any person who willfully fails or neglects to attend and testify or to answer any lawful inquiry or to produce records, documents, or other evidence, if it is in such person’s power to do so, in obedience to the subpoena or other lawful order under subsection (a), shall be fined not more than $100,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.
So I most likely will just be walking on down to file a complaint.
It is as if they don’t think it is a “Big Deal” oh but it is!!!!
According to the American Cancer Society:
Ventilation Technologies Are Ineffective
No U.S. science agency has found that ventilation systems reduce occupational exposure to secondhand smoke to an acceptable level.
The 2006 Surgeon General’s report concluded that exposure of nonsmokers to second handsmoke cannot be controlled by air cleaning or mechanical air exchange.
The current Surgeon General’s Report concluded that scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Short exposures to secondhand smoke can cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce heart rate variability, potentially increasing the risk of heart attack.For more information on Second-hand smoke please visit:
The American Lung Association