> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Making SM smokeless a hot topic - URL: https://www.smdp.com/making-sm-smokeless-a-hot-topic/ - Published: 2007-02-26T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-24T00:08:54.000Z - Author: Kevin Herrera - Tags: Real Estate & Housing, Santa Monica, #archive-import *FROM SMOKING PAGE 1 City could be first to restrict smoking in private flats* THIRD STREET Willow Evans can’t even get a good night’s sleep in her own bed. Cigarette smoke from apartments all around her seeps into her bedroom, into her lungs and nearly suffocates her, causing Evans to wake up gasping for air. “No matter what I do, the smoke still gets in,” Evans said.“It comes through the windows when they’re closed. It even comes up through the drain in the kitchen sink… I work at home so it affects me nearly all day long. It affects me emotionally too because I feel like I’m trapped in my own apartment.” Evans isn’t alone. Barbara Bronie also has issues with neighbors who smoke. The math teacher at Santa Monica College said she has to sleep in her living room because she is constantly struggling to breathe because of secondhand smoke drifting into her apartment. Bronie said the smoke also affects her ability to think and gives her stomach aches. “I have a chemical sensitivity,” Bronie said. “One doctor called it cerebral allergies. It affects my brain. If I’m trying to find the answer to six times four, I can’t get 24 to come up in my mind if someone is smoking around me.” Bronie and Evans are determined to find some relief. The two have joined with other tenants who desire smoke-free housing and formed the Santa Monica Alliance for Protection from Secondhand Smoke in Apartments and Condominiums, or APSAC. The organization is affiliated with Smoke Free Air For Everyone (SAFE) which is advocating for the passage of a city law that would mandate smoke-free housing units be set aside for tenants. The coalition envisions apartment complexes in which whole floors are free from secondhand smoke. “It’s not my health verses their \[smokers’\] health. It’s our health,” Evans said. “Nobody should be smoking.” Even though nearly two-thirds of Americans have smoke-free policies in their own homes according to the 2000 census, restrictions on smoking in multi-unit buildings — in the very sanctity of one’s own living room — constitutes a new frontier in tobacco law. If the City Council were to pass such a mandate, it would make Santa Monica the first city to do so in the nation. “Santa Monica has made it so there are a lot of places that you can go where you won’t be exposed to harmful tobacco smoke. Santa Monica has made it safe,”said Esther Schiller of (SAFE), an advocacy group founded in 1992 by four people who had been harmed by cigarette smoke. “Housing is the final frontier.” The City Council of Butler, a suburb of San Francisco, is considering such an ordinance, however, elected officials have run into strong opposition from smokers, who have phoned in threats to City Hall and have compared council members to Nazis. That said, restrictions on smoking have gained favor and momentum in recent years, particularly in 2006 following a report by the U.S Surgeon General that declared secondhand smoke deadly and that no level of exposure is considered safe. Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent, a report by the surgeon general said. The California Air Resources Board released a similar report that declared secondhand smoke to be a toxic air contaminant that can cause serious illness or death. Board Chairman Dr. Robert Sawyer emphasized the devastating effects tobacco smoke can have on young children who live in a home where smoking occurs. Those reports prompted the City Council to enact one of the more comprehensive smoking bans in the nation, virtually eliminating it in nearly all public spaces, including the Third Street Promenade, bus stops and all public service lines, such as ATM lines. The ban also included any area within 20 feet of a public doorway or window. Smoking was already prohibited on the city’s beaches, parks and in front of government buildings. City Hall was at the forefront in enforcing the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants. Elected officials have been more than willing to pass restrictions on smoking in public despite concerns from business owners and experts in the tourism industry, however, advocates for smoke-free apartments and condominiums may find a less receptive and possibly reluctant City Council. Any effort to create smoke-free housing would require public officials to intrude upon one’s privacy, force property owners to discriminate against those tenants who smoke, and further limit the options available to those looking for affordable, rental housing in Santa Monica. And if that wasn’t enough, two powerful constituencies – Action Apartment Association (AAA) and Santa Monicans for Renters Rights (SMRR) - have voiced their concern for a law setting aside a certain number of apartments for non-smokers. “Under Santa Monica rent control we have no authority to evict or to force an eviction of a tenant who is smoking even if smoking is not allowed in our lease,” said Carl Lambert, president of AAA. “Absent that authority, I would be leery of signing onto something that is only going to lead to landlord liability.” Lambert said most of the apartment complexes in Santa Monica are small, preventing landlords from setting aside floors for non-smokers. Also, Lambert said advocates for rent control would not want landlords to have another reason to evict tenants, and therefore would lobby against any effort to create smoke-free-dwellings. “Even if a tenant is harming others with second-hand smoke, SMRR, doesn’t want to give owners the right to protect their tenants through eviction,” Lambert said. “My sense is (smoke-free-dwellings) won’t go anywhere in this town because SMRR is not in favor of it.” Denny Zane, a founding member of SMRR and former mayor, said SMRR — as an organization — has not taken a position on the issue of eviction, but members have expressed skepticism. “We don’t want to create any new basis for evictions because our concern and history has shown, that doing so creates more opportunities for abuse and harassment,” Zane said. “There are also a number of SMRR activists who believe that reaching into people’s private lives, their private conduct in their own homes, goes too far. But I’m sure there will be some lively dialogue.” Schiller said there is already overwhelming support from the renters for smoke-free housing. SAFE conducted a survey of Santa Monica residents that found 61.5 percent of current tobacco users and nearly 87 percent of non-tobacco users would support regulation of smoking in multi-unit housing. The survey of 624 residents also found that 38 percent of those living in apartments had secondhand smoke drift into their homes, and of those, 46 percent said they had someone living with them who had a medical condition that worsened because of exposure to smoke. “Tenants in Santa Monica have rent security but no smoke security,” Schiller said. “We are not advocating that (a law mandating smoke-free housing) be implemented immediately. We know that this will take some time and people will have to be grandfathered into it.” Evans hopes that change will come sooner rather than later. “I have a rent controlled apartment so that pretty much is preventing me from moving,” she said. “I just don’t think I could afford to live anywhere else.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 26, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/022607.pdf?ref=smdp.com)