How Can We Help With Tobacco-Free Multi-Unit Housing?
CASA works directly with landlords and property managers to protect the health and wellness of all residents.
If you live in a building that has multiple apartments, the decision to live a smoke-free life isn’t totally in your hands. While you can decide not to smoke, or smoke in your apartment, other tenants may not feel the same way. When your neighbor smokes in their apartment, cigarette smoke can travel from their apartment to yours. Second-hand smoke can travel from one unit to another through electrical outlets, holes from plumbing, and ventilation ducts.
Tenants
- Cigarette smoke can drift from neighboring apartments and create an unhealthy living situation for everyone in the building.
- The Surgeon General has stated there is no safe level of second-hand smoke.
- Second-hand smoke contributes to asthma, heart disease, and cancer.
- Second-hand smoke can then turn into third-hand smoke (residual nicotine left on surfaces by tobacco smoke).
- Third-hand smoke can significantly impact infants and pets.
- Smoking is one of the leading causes of household fires and the number one cause of fire deaths in the United States.
- Smokers can still live in buildings with smoke-free housing.
Landlords
- There is no constitutional right to smoke.
- According to a community survey of property owners in six upstate New York counties, 97 percent of landlords who have a no-smoking policy are satisfied with their decision.
- Most renters want smoke-free housing. In New York State, 74 percent of non-smokers favor no-smoking policies where they live.
- No smoking policies prevent fires and protect your investment.
- No smoking policies reduces the cost of maintenance.
Please visit www.smokefreehousingny.org for more resources.
SmokeFreeHousingNY is funded by the New York State Department of Health Tobacco Control Program. Our common goal is to protect the health of New York State residents by increasing the availability of smoke-free multi-unit housing throughout the state. We have assisted public housing authorities, non-profit community development corporations, and market-rate apartment management companies to adopt no-smoking policies in their communities.
Contact Us
Contact us at [email protected] for more information and resources so we can help you with policy development and signage on going smoke-free.
