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Property Owners

Renting Smoke-Free is a Growing Trend in Multi-Unit Housing!

(UNITS: Clearing the Air: Industry Discusses Trend Towards Smoke-Free Housing)

A smoke-free policy is NOT discriminatory.

Owners/managers can designate apartment units or common spaces to be free of secondhand smoke. Keep in mind:

It is legal for apartment managers/owners to designate common areas, certain apartments or all of the apartments in a building as smoke-free.
People who smoke are not protected under state and national anti-discrimination laws.
Tenants who suffer from asthma or other respiratory diseases can take action against a property owner who does not take adequate measures to protect those residents from secondhand smoke.
Apartment owners have the legal right to restrict or prohibit smoking in their building(s), just as they are free to prohibit pets.

For assistance with implementing a smoke-free policy contact Hanneka Brown (402) 280-3429, Mary Crosby (402) 397-3309 or Antonia Correa - Bilingual (402) 559-3670.

Indoor Air Quality

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "concluded that the wide-spread exposure to *ETS (Environmental Tobacco Smoke) in the U.S. presents a serious and substantial public health risk." The EPA recommends "taking appropriate steps to minimize peoples' exposure to tobacco smoke in indoor environments."

Commercial air filtering systems are designed to remove odors, not cancer-causing substances.
Shared ventilation systems can cause tobacco smoke to blow from one room to another. Increased building ventilation alone is not effective in reducing exposure to secondhand smoke.
According to the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), "no engineering approaches, including current and advanced dilution ventilation or air-cleaning technologies, should be relied upon to control health risks from *ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) exposure in spaces where smoking occurs."

* Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) and Secondhand Smoke (SHS) are synonomous.