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Tenants

As a tenant in a rental property, you have the right to live free of a significant cause of illness in the home and a major cause of preventable death in the United States: secondhand smoke.
Tenants' Rights

Understanding your legal rights - and the legal rights of smokers - is the first step to making smoke-free changes to the apartment building where you live.

Here are some important things you should know:

  • Smoke-free apartment policies are permitted under federal and Nebraska laws.
  • It is important to note that smokers are not a protected legal class, i.e., there is no "right to smoke" under law.

The Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits smoking in common areas of apartment buildings, such as hallways, laundry rooms, recreation/common rooms, near entrances, and similar types of areas.

Laws do exist that you can use to assert your rights to a smoke-free apartment.

  • Non-smokers with serious breathing disabilities or smoke allergies have legal protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act. If secondhand smoke seriously affects your ability to breathe, consult a doctor to have your condition documented.

Did you know? There are over 4,000 identifiable chemicals in cigarette smoke, 200 of which are poisons and 40 carcinogens - chemicals which are known to cause cancer.

More Secondhand Smoke Facts

It is a Group A carcinogen -- a substance known to cause cancer in humans for which there is no safe level of exposure.

  • Secondhand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. It kills approximately 53,000 nonsmokers each year.1
  • In Nebraska, approximately 220 to 390 adults, children and infants die each year from exposure to others who smoke (secondhand smoke and pregnancy smoking).2
  • More than 15 million U.S. children are exposed to secondhand smoke at home.3 Each year, secondhand smoke in the United States is linked to:
    1. 300,000 cases of infant respiratory infection
    2. 26,000 new cases of asthma and
    3. One million severe cases of asthma in children 3

Additionally, up to 58% of all deaths due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) are linked to secondhand smoke exposure.4

  • Secondhand smoke cannot be controlled by ventilation, air cleaning or the separation of smokers from non-smokers. The only solution to this problem is to make buildings smoke-free.


1 Glantz, S.A., and W. Parmley, "Passive Smoking and Heart Disease: Epidemiology, Physiology and Biochemistry," Circulation 83 (1): 10 (1991).
2 Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "The Toll of Tobacco in Nebraska" Accessed from http://www.tobaccofreekids.org.
3 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 1992. Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders. Washington, D.C., Pub. No. EPA/600/6-90/006F, p. 1-16.
4 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Office of Research and Development. Office of Air and Radiation. Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking (Fact sheet, January 1993). Washington, D.C., Pub. No. EPA-43-F-93-003.

 

 

 

© Copyright 2010 Metro Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition.