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Tribune News Service

Smokers living in apartments, condominiums and town houses in a California city will now have to think twice about lighting up inside their homes.
The beach city of Carlsbad this week became the first in San Diego County to expressly ban smoking and vaping of cannabis and nicotine products inside all local multifamily residential buildings.
While the city’s ordinance prompted some complaints about government prying into the private lives of residents, others applauded city leaders for prioritising the health of non-smokers living in units that are inundated by their neighbours’ second-hand smoke.
Advocates of the ban noted that cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, resulting in more than 480,000 deaths annually, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Second-hand smoke exposure can cause a variety of ailments, including heart disease, stroke and lung cancer, federal health officials say.
“This is more than an annoyance,” resident Katrina Preece told the city council in 2023 about the effects of second-hand smoke. “This is a painful and alarming health hazard.”
A lot of times managers don’t want to get into a confrontation because it’s just a policy [...] we’re going to give them a tool
Carlsbad mayor Keith Blackburn on benefits of the smoking ban
Officials in Carlsbad began discussing an ordinance prohibiting smoking inside multifamily properties with three or more units roughly a year ago.
Smoking was for decades permitted in locations such as restaurants, shops and even on aeroplanes.
But the habit has largely fallen out of fashion in American culture as more people became aware of the potential health effects, the cost of lighting up continued to increase and many cities took steps to ban smoking in most public spaces.
At least 84 other California municipalities, including Beverly Hills, Culver City, Manhattan Beach and Pasadena, have banned smoking in some multifamily private residences, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.
In addition to barring people from lighting up inside private homes, the Carlsbad ordinance also prohibits smoking on private balconies, porches, decks, patios and common areas that are not designated as smoking locations. The law does not apply to single-family homes.
Mayor Keith Blackburn said during a council meeting in August 2023 that a ban on smoking would help property managers more easily enforce their anti-smoking policies. Several complexes in Carlsbad already have existing non-smoking clauses in their leases.

“A lot of times managers don’t want to get into a confrontation because it’s just a policy or it’s just in the lease and [the renter] knows you’re not going to evict them for smoking,” Blackburn said. “So I looked at this and I thought, at least for the managers, we’re going to give them a tool.”
But others worry the law would become an unnecessary burden for property owners.
The city, citing limited resources, says police and code enforcement officers will not enforce the law. Instead, landlords and other tenants will be able to take legal action against violators.
Council member Melanie Burkholder, who cast the lone dissenting vote on the ban, says she does not think local police should be in the business of telling residents whether they can smoke in their homes.
“It just seems like it’s kind of out of place,” she said during a meeting in 2023.
Will Creagan, chairman of Southwest Equity Partners – a San Diego County-based property management company – put it more bluntly in a letter this month to city staff: “So you pass an ordinance and then tell the property managers, ‘You need to enforce this’ … good luck. This is another clear case of government overreach.”
The law will go into effect in January.
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Wellness

California city bans smoking at home, ignites debate on health versus government overreach

A man smokes a cigarette at home. Photo: Shutterstock

Beach houses in Carlsbad, California. Smoking and vaping have been banned in some residential buildings there, a measure which has divided the coastal city. Photo: Shutterstock Images. 

A birdseye view of Carlsbad, in San Diego County, California. Photo: Shutterstock

Although many Carlsbad residents are in favour of the home smoking ban, some have called it “out of place” and “government overreach”. Photo: TNS

The bad news about smoking, and the good news: 8 million die from tobacco use yearly; quitting brings lasting benefits

On World No Tobacco Day, we look at the dangers of smoking, and the lasting benefits of quitting and how quickly they start. Photo: Shutterstock

A discarded cigarette pack in Hong Kong carries a warning that smoking harms your children. Photo: SCMP

“Smoking is a sure way to introduce carcinogens into the body,” says Professor Tony Mok, chairman of the clinical oncology department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Photo: Prof Tony Mok

Many places – outdoors and indoors – are off limits to smokers, a reminder that the habit is unhealthy and antisocial. Photo: SCMP

Jon Hamm, who played Don Draper in Mad Men, quit smoking in his twenties. Photo: TNS

E-cigarettes (vapes) are just as bad for you as cigarettes, say doctors. Vaping produces up to 127 “acutely toxic” chemicals. Photo: Shutterstock 

The potential damage from smoking is in direct proportion to pack years – the number of packets of cigarettes smoked per day multiplied by the number of years of smoking. Photo: Shutterstock 

Another reason to stop smoking: it increases dementia risk from brain shrinkage – but quitting, at any age, helps

Smoking shrinks your brain, increasing the risk of dementia. However, quitting the habit, even aged 60, substantially reduces the risk. Photo: Shutterstock

Dr Laura Bierut, a psychiatry professor at Washington University School of Medicine, led a study that links habitual smoking with brain shrinkage. Photo: Washington University School of Medicine

Studies show smoking damages the brain as well as the heart and lungs. The habit is linked to brain shrinkage, which causes memory loss – a hallmark of dementia. Photo: Shutterstock

White matter describes the nerve fibres that connect different areas of the brain to each other and to the spinal cord. Photo: Shutterstock

The US Food and Drug Administration says there are more than 7,000 chemicals in cigarettes and cigarette smoke. Image: Shutterstock

Smoking while pregnant harms not only the mother-to-be, but also the unborn child. Studies show tobacco smoke exposure in pregnancy is linked to smaller brains in newborns. Photo: Shutterstock

How to stop smoking using traditional Chinese medicine, and counselling

Trying to quit smoking? Traditional Chinese medicine can help you give up through therapies such as acupuncture combined with counselling. Photo: 
Shutterstock

Clara Chan, registered Chinese medicine practitioner at Balance Health in Central, Hong Kong. Photo: Balance Health

Some herbs used in traditional Chinese medicine can aid in stress management and help smokers quit. Photo: Shutterstock

Lifestyle

Health & Wellness

Health

A smoking ban in residential buildings in Carlsbad has some praising action against an ‘alarming health hazard’. But others are not happy


Smoking and vaping have been banned in some residential buildings in Carlsbad, California. Many residents are happy to be rid of second-hand smoke, but not everyone is on board with the measure.


Smoking and vaping

United States