Rose Marie Borutski on her balcony of her condo in Surrey, BC, October 7, 2010. Ms. Borutski went to the Human Rights Commission over cigarette smoking in her complex.Lyle Stafford for the Globe and Mail
When Rose Marie Borutski was offered a non-smoking suite at Kiwanis Park Place, a 146-unit complex for seniors and the disabled near Crescent Beach, she saw it as a haven where she could get healthy and enjoy an abundance of fresh air.
Instead, the disabled 58-year-old, who has a serious sensitivity to cigarette smoke, found herself surrounded by smokers - and at the centre of the latest battleground in the fight against tobacco: other people's homes.
"I realized I had been put into a smoker's suite. I also had a smoker below me, and I was in front of the smoking area outside," Ms. Borutski said. "I was stunned."
Within a year, she and 17 other residents with ailments such as asthma, emphysema and heart disease had filed a BC Human Rights complaint, just one of eight such complaints about smoking in multiunit dwellings that are ongoing or were recently settled.
A groundswell of renters and owners are demanding smoke-free housing in multiunit dwellings, the final frontier in a fight that brought bans in workplaces, on airplanes, in restaurants and bars, on patios, near doorways, in prisons, and, just last month, in parks.
But the latest debate literally hits home, and pits tobacco users, who argue they're consuming a legal product, against people who don't want harmful smoke drifting into their suites through vents, hallways and windows.
"It's one of the next major health issues - I think in part because of the number of people who are now living in apartments and condos," said Sharon Hammond, who helped launch smokefreehousingbc.ca, a website that offers advice to landlords, tenants and condominium owners.
She rejects the idea that the push to restrict smoking in private residences is a matter of conflicting rights, saying it is simply an extension of the logic behind ever-tighter government restrictions on tobacco use at work and in public places.
"People are also getting used to not smelling smoke everywhere. Then they get home and think, 'If I don't have to smell it when I'm out, why do I have to smell it in my own home?' "
For the most part, governments are remaining on the sidelines, but a handful of Canadian municipalities are already curbing smoking in shared dwellings. This year, Waterloo, Ont., banned smoking for all new residents in public housing, and began offering counselling and nicotine replacement for those who want to quit. St. John's has adopted a similar policy, and several other jurisdictions are looking at following suit.
In the United States, the limits are more widespread. In 2000, just two public housing authorities had smoke-free policies; now that number has risen to more than 200. One municipality in California has put an outright ban on smoking in all multistory, multiunit residences. Some states, including Oregon, require building managers to disclose whether smoking is allowed and where.
In Canada, there are no bans on smoking in market-rate condos and rental apartments, but an increasing number of developers are looking at building smoke-free complexes - especially those seeking the coveted green certification, LEED, which puts strict limits on smoking. Ms. Hammond and other opponents of smoking say such voluntary steps, along with a disclosure law similar to that of Oregon, are their preferred short-term route to smoke-free living. The anti-smoking lobby is also hoping for regulations making new condos smoke-free unless owners vote otherwise.
Although 85 per cent of people in B.C. don't smoke, and the province has more than 725,000 residential strata lots, fewer than a dozen condo complexes have outlawed smoking.
Still, some are concerned about the increasing calls for smoke-free apartments. BC Civil Liberties Association president Robert Holmes says the rights of smokers must be carefully weighed against the rights of non-smokers. Even though secondhand smoke has been deemed harmful, the degree of harm must be considered, since urban life is full of dangers, from car exhaust to cologne.
"We established a rule with [former prime minister Pierre]Trudeau that the state doesn't have any particular place in the bedrooms of the nation," he said. "And I would argue in the kitchens and the living rooms as well."
Tony Gioventu says it's not that simple. As executive director of the Condominium Home Owners Association of BC, he argues that when people buy into a condo development, they are signing away their right to do whatever they want.
If music is blaring at 4 a.m., the management will no doubt pull the plug. Similarly, a neighbour's secondhand smoke can be deemed a nuisance, which the strata council must address. If the smoke causes a health problem, it can also become a human-rights claim.
"When you are in a high-density development, your home is really not your castle," said Mr. Gioventu, adding that any strata may introduce a non-smoking bylaw. "You're sharing each other's space, which means you're sharing each other's air as well."
Mr. Gioventu said it's only a matter of time, however, before a long-time smoker demands accommodation - which could mean the strata would have to build a separately ventilated smoking room.
"On one side, you may have a non-smoker with a serious allergy, but the person next door has been a smoker for 30 years and has a serious addiction," he said. "So whose rights are the right rights?"