SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Nov. 22 (UPI) --
A California ordinance that prohibits smoking in residences with shared
walls may be the strictest anti-smoking law in the United States, city
officials say.
The ban, passed by the city of San Rafael, applies to both owners and renters, ABC News reported Thursday.
It covers any multi-family residence with three or more units, including
condominiums, co-ops and apartments. The ban took effect Nov. 14.
"I'm not aware of any ordinance that's stronger," said Rebecca Woodbury,
an analyst in the San Rafael's city manager's office who helped write
the ordinance.
She cited studies that found secondhand smoke seeps through walls,
ventilation ducts and even cracks as justification for the ordinance.
Critics jumped on Woodbury's reasoning and the ordinance itself.
"The science for that is spurious at best," said George Koodray, the
state coordinator for Citizens Freedom Alliance and the Smoker's Club in
New Jersey.
Steve Stanek, a research fellow at the free-market oriented policy group
Heartland Institute in Chicago, supported the rights of smokers.
Stanek, a non-smoker, said, "My sympathies aren't with smokers because I
am one, it's because of the huge growth in laws and punishments and
government restricting people more and more."
Article Here: Smoking at Home banned
Perhaps we should demolish all housed affected by radon gas and pass and ordinance that if you have so much as a cold, you be removed to a communicable disease center for isolation... heaven forbid a cold germ get through a neighbors wall or window.... and what about those damned curry smells. Some liberal even legalize pot and make its smell a crime....
"Your activities
should not pervade others' peace and ability to enjoy," said Denver
Mayor Michael Hancock. "Marijuana is one of those elements that can be
quite pervasive and invasive. I shouldn't have to smell your activities
from your backyard."
And yet these same phonies will bend over backwards to legalize pot....
ReplyDeleteYeah strange. Now if they would only ban the cooking of curry in domiciles with shared walls.
DeleteHonestly, no angle with this, just something I've found in the midst of a research class,
ReplyDelete96 billion dollars is spent annually on medical care related to smoking
97 billion dollars is lost annually in productivity due to smoking, from 2012 numbers, I calculated this to be about half of one percent of GDP.
Thought those numbers were interesting. We now return you to whatever you are currently outraged about.
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DeleteMax, rarely do any of your drive by comments come with 'no angle'... I can almost bet that there is more injury to others by hearing loss because of shared walls than there is from second hand smoke passing from apartment to apartment through a shared wall which generally are a concrete/brick structure with a layer of sheet rock and paint on each side....
DeleteInterestingly enough you add the cost of medical care to your pro government stance. Were it not for government intervention, people would be held accountable for their own mistakes and thus cost the public nothing but as with all good statist programs; anything that affects a government plan requires more regulation of everyone.
One estimate places the loss to GDP from time wasted by ‘Facebooking’ at between 650B to over 1Trillion a year and productivity costs as high as 9% of total output. The loses in productivity (within a company that is not a government entity) is a private matter as are the people that company hires (or at least it should be) so there is no issue governmentally … except that the company is not ‘feeding’ the government as efficiently as it should. But, because it affects the ‘loss’ of government revenue we must have… more government internet oversight and NAS spying to control that ‘loss of revenue’.
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) spends $680 million a year for SAR(Search and Rescue), 13% of their budget. They perform 82 search and rescue missions a day, assisting 114 people each day.. no payment by rescues is required.
So should we ban people from swimming, boating, hiking and mountain climbing? Or charge them for their errors in judgment? And what about the risk posed to the people who, many times in adverse weather, have to go out and rescue them?
Oh yeah… how many of those smoking related individuals are fat asses who have compromised their health in many other ways that exacerbate the effects of smoking? As I hear you say.. “Exactly Scott, that is why we must have laws for Big Gulps, Big Macs, transfats… and … and well, I can’t think of any more right now but when I do, we should make a law for that too. We must protect the public because they are costing us all”
It’s all about control Max (Mike) … its all about removing individual responsibility and giving it to the state…
That ordinance about shared walls and smoking is no less about control than this:
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/11/26/huntington-beach-bar-fights-to-save-sign-that-salutes-veterans/
Sorry TS, you completely misread that.
DeleteAs a smoker, I have mixed feelings about this. I don't smoke inside my own house (not a condo or apartment), when eating out, I sit in the non-smoking section and I really can't stand the smell inside of another smokers house. I strongly believe you should be able to do pretty much anything you choose to do, until it impacts someone else and if you live next door to a smoker in an apartment complex and have asthma, this might make sense. Where I do have issues is government banning smoking in private business. If you don't like the smoke, go somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteIf someone chooses to live close to another one should be aware of the chance that other one could stink, or be loud, or be a drunk,,,,,or be a,,,,
ReplyDeleteIn 1966 the Federal government mandated that cigarette packs have a warning on them from the surgeon general.
People still choose to smoke.
Since 1998, governments at all levels have collected more than $484.6 BILLION in cigarette taxes (including sales tax) and payments from smokers.
Settlement payments, federal, and state and local taxes on cigarettes for fiscal year 2012 amounted to more than $43.3 BILLION.
- Federal excise taxes - $14,870,000,000
- State and local excise taxes - $17,446,492,000
- State cigarette sales taxes - $4,207,463,000
- Tobacco settlement payments - $7,190,051,472
The government per-pack profit from cigarettes in 2012 was $3.78 (or 66 percent of the cost of a pack of cigarettes); almost ten times the profit of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company
Adult smokers make up about 18 percent of the population, yet smokers as a group are the only ones singled out for more and more "sin" taxes.
Cigarette tax increase proposals are made frequently - usually to fund new or expanded government programs.
- Since 2001, 48 states have increased tobacco taxes.
- Since 2000, federal taxes on a pack of cigarettes have increased 197 percent.
- Since 1998, the average cost of a pack of cigarettes has more than doubled (from $2.17 to $5.65).