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Mono County working
to bring smoke-free leases
to Mammoth’s complexes
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Mammoth Times Photo/Tiffany Henschel At the Summit Condominiums on Meridian Boulevard, general manager Dan Wright has posted no smoking signs in common areas. It’s a warm enough day in Mammoth for you to enjoy the sunshine from your balcony when an annoying whiff of cigarette smoke drifts from a neighbor in your multi-unit housing complex to your nostrils and into your unit.
What do you do?
According to a first-time survey in Mono County about secondhand smoke taken by the Tobacco Education Program and completed by 77 owner/managers of multi-unit housing complexes in Mammoth Lakes, only one person in 25 answering such a question complained directly to management.
A further 11 respondents did nothing, nine tried to prevent smoke from entering their units, and five complained directly to the smokers.
“How will management know unless they’re told?” Asked Nancy Mahannah, Health Promotion Division Manager for Mono County.
The two key findings of the survey, she said, are that few people complain about secondhand smoke from patios and balconies or in common areas, even when it bothers them, and that while there are many smoke-free multi-housing units in Mammoth, none have been made entirely smoke free as a matter of written policy.
The survey was prepared between August 2008 and July 2009 with the objective of seeing at least five multi-unit housing complexes in Mono County implement a written smoke-free policy that would include patios and balconies by June 30 this year.
The total units surveyed represent about 84 percent of Mono County’s multi-unit housing. “This is definitely a Mammoth Lakes only survey,” Mahannah said. Multi-unit housing throughout the rest of Mono County is scattered.
“We make a contract with the state to do certain things, and one of them was to do this assessment and then try to help people choose to make policy within their multi-unit housing to be smoke free.”
California identifies secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant containing, among other toxins, benzene, arsenic, nicotine and carbon monoxide.
“When I deal with making policy change, I always try to survey the target group that’s affected by the policy,” she said. “Because we’re not just going to go out there and make policy; we’re going to determine the needs of the population before we make policy.”
Dan Wright, general manager for the Summit Homeowners Association, said he would be 100 percent in favor of such a written policy, but believes it would be difficult to establish enforce.
“We have 8 buildings and 210 units. We’d have to get all the owners in the building to agree on a non-smoking policy before it could be enforced,” he said. “The best we can do, per the ordinance, is prohibit smoking in all the common areas.”
Wright has posted signage to that effect throughout the complex. “Wherever we observe a violation, we approach the people and ask them to put out their cigar, pipes, whatever they’re smoking. And they’re very compliant,” he said.
But Mahannah hopes to assist in helping more complexes adopt written policies. “We can help people,” she said. “Through our technical assistance with the state, we were able to come up with some sample leases that will help people do that.”
Precedent for smoke-free multi-unit housing California exists in 23 cities, including the semi-rural cities of Chico and Woodland.
The newest study on the deleterious effects of secondhand smoke, released in December by Cancer Epidemiology and Biomarkers Prevention, cited among other things a 2.6 percent increase in breast cancer in non-smoking young women who are exposed to secondhand smoke. It also emphasized the special susceptibility of young children.
The health department has put out a radio ad suggesting that people ask when they rent or lease whether the building is smoke free. This will help build momentum toward establishing written policies on smoke-free environments.
While a majority of Californians have kicked the habit, there still remains what Mahannah described as the “right to smoke group.” Slowly, she said, “the right to clean air group is taking over.”
Managers can increase awareness by asking tenants about their smoking status, but, according to the survey, 80 percent do not do so. |
