Well, as I stated I think the law is overreaching. And perhaps ironically, my building is non-smoking throughout (not by law, but by contract - it’s in the rental agreement). But because my next-door neighbour was smoking illegal substances he’d do it inside instead of outside like the rest of the smokers (except the super, who smokes in her apt :))
And the place isn’t cheaply built per se, just the bathroom and kitchen fans are all connected to one bigass exhaust fan on the roof and the airflow is relatively low.
When we’ve gotten to the point where we’re passing laws making it illegal to smoke in your own residence I think it’s time we just be honest with ourselves and push for making tobacco illegal to produce, possess and use.
I really don’t understand why this is so controversial. Perhaps the law could be better phrased as “You are not permitted to let your cigarette smoke diminish others’ enjoyment of their own property”, because that’s exactly what it is–if people in neighboring apartments can’t smell your smoke, no one is going to call the police or fine you, and if they can you should stop smoking where they can smell it from THEIR residence whether or not there’s a law.
We have laws against having unregulated nuclear piles in one’s own basement. Laws against storing high explosives. Laws against keeping dangerous wild animals. Laws against making too much noise. Laws against all sorts of things which endanger or annoy your neighbors.
All of those things are illegal regardless of where you do them. If people living in multi-unit buildings are experiencing secondhand smoke from their neighbors- a premise I find doubtful, to say the least- the answer is tighter building codes.
It happens. Buildings with an inadequate central ventilation core, for example (someone mentioned upthread that was happening), or construction originally intended to be single-family but split into 2-4 apartments (happens a LOT where I live, or in any college town of my experience), joined duplexes, bad design (I lived in a place where the fresh-air intake for my air conditioner was directly above the exhaust for my downstairs neighbor’s unit, so I knew what he was cooking by the smell on a daily basis) or just plain shoddy construction.
I don’t disagree with you on tighter code standards, but it also seems like common sense that one shouldn’t allow their behaviors to unnecessarily or casually intrude upon other people’s residences.
Sure, but people who live in shitty apartments aren’t “allowing their behavior to unnecessarily intrude on other people’s residences”. What are they supposed to do?
Do what I do–smoke outside. Or purchase/ask for a better exhaust fan. Or move. I don’t see what it is about smoking that makes it acceptable (either legally or morally) to cause problems for another person on that other person’s own property.
I could see a case being made, even in the absence of the CA law, that the smoker could be held liable for nuisance due to odor, especially if it were persistent or excessive.
I lived in an apartment next to a smoker for a while and it sucked. My apt would stink from there smoke.
This rule is like a noise ordinance it seems. If someones loud music is annoying you, it is expected that they turn it down.