By Abigail Bimman
It is banned on airplanes, in restaurants and offices, and new research suggests that people want second-hand smoke out of their bedrooms as well – though whether landlords agree remains to be seen.
Of the four million Ontarians who live in multi-unit dwellings, 64 per cent would like the choice to have a smoke-free building, suggest two studies commissioned by the Ontario Tobacco-Free Network and peby the Ipsos Reid market research firm.
“It’s a big issue, and it’s not a surprise that people who are affected by this want to have the choice to live in a smoke-free building,” says Carmela Graziani, a volunteer with the Ottawa Council on Smoking and Health.
For Centretown resident Larry Graham, living smoke-free is not a choice – it’s a matter of life and death.
Graham has had asthma since age five. Ten years ago, at the age of 47, he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a lung disease that obstructs the airways that deliver oxygen to the lungs.
A smoker himself, after being diagnosed Graham quit smoking and was forced to retire from his federal government job.
“I was literally too sick to work,” Graham says. He says he has only 20 per cent of his lung capacity left.
Graham takes four different inhalers and a pill each day to stabilize his condition.
Smoking a cigarette will put Graham in the hospital. Smelling second-hand smoke in his building is also dangerous.
He chose his apartment because it has no balcony and is beside an elevator.
Graham can smell smoke seeping out from other tenants’ doors when he walks down the hallway, however, and this makes him “sicker than a dog,” he says.
“I’m literally at the no-tolerance level. It’s almost like I’m being smothered and I have to get out of that area immediately.”
The board of directors for Graham’s building told him it would not consider making the building smoke-free. Their bottom line, he says, was they would not turn away smokers.
“When you live in an apartment, you are a second-class or third-class citizen,” Graham says. “You have to go with the flow, and it’s getting dangerous – it’s making people sick.”
“It’s an issue that I think landlords would be happy to support,” says Valerie Wiseman, administrator for the Ottawa Regional Landlords’ Association. “It’s a headache for landlords to have smokers in the building.”
Wiseman cites tenant complaints, health concerns, smell and costly smoke damage as motivators to make landlords back the issue.
The Ontario Tobacco-Free Network held a symposium in Toronto recently. During discussions, landlords did not seem to be jumping on board, says Pippa Beck, a policy analyst with the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association in Ottawa.
“It was really difficult to get people to come to the table to talk about it,” Beck says.
“Some landlords have bigger issues that they’re dealing with, and it’s a can of worms that they don’t want to open. It stems from not fully being aware of their rights and the situation.”
The network is working to make people understand that tenants have the right to ask for a smoke-free building and that landlords are legally able to provide one.
In Ottawa, the only known smoke-free, multi-unit dwellings are the residences at Carleton University, the University of Ottawa, and Algonquin College.
Graziani says she wants more buildings adopt this code, but emphasizes that the network is not pushing for legislation.
“This isn’t a question of legislation or banning, it’s a question of landlords providing tenants with an option, and a question of market choice leading the way.”
Wiseman adds that eradicating smoking in buildings is impossible.
“The smokers have to live somewhere.”