By C. J. HUGHES for the New York Times
Hello students! With new anti-smoking legislation imminent in Spain, I thought this article would be appropriate. Please read and add your comments below, answering the following questions:
- Do you share the opinions of Bryan Marx, or do you agree more with Dale Smith, and why?
- Do you sympathize with Brian Massotti, or do you think he is better off now and will be grateful in the long run?
- Do you feel anti-smoking legislation is necessary because otherwise smokers will always abuse the rights of non-smokers, or do you think the opposite is true?
More landlords are moving to prohibit smoking in their apartment buildings, telling prospective tenants they can be evicted if they light up in them. This month, the Related Companies will ban smoking at some of its downtown apartment buildings because of health concerns about secondhand smoke, according to company officials.
Smokers who already live in any of these buildings will not be affected, according to Jeff Brodsky, a president of Related, which is a national developer with 17 buildings in Manhattan.
But any new renters must promise not to smoke at home, even if they continue to elsewhere.
Kenbar Management, a local developer, is going a step further. When its new project, 1510 Lexington Avenue, opens in December, smoking will be banned in all 298 units, in addition to private and shared terraces.
And the typical smoker’s refuge — directly outside the building — is also off limits; tenants must agree not to smoke on any of the sidewalks that wrap around the building, which takes up most of a block in East Harlem, according to Kinne Yon, a Kenbar principal.
The trend has predictably divided smokers and nonsmokers in New York. “I think it’s absolutely absurd,” said Bryan Marx, 53, a cabinetmaker who has lived at Tribeca Park, a Related building on Chambers Street, since 1999. He smokes hand-rolled cigarettes in his apartment, but said that he cut back on a cigar habit a few years ago to appease a neighbor.
Opinions among NYC residents are divided. “How about a little tolerance?” Mr. Marx added. “Smokers have become the whipping boys for everything that’s unhealthy about living in New York City.”
“I think it’s a bloody good thing,” said Dale Smith, 41, a Broadway producer who formerly worked in the health care industry. A resident of Tribeca Green for nearly three years, Mr. Smith, who does not smoke, said he had complained to his landlord about secondhand smoke in his apartment.
Yet some smokers seemed resigned to their fate. Brian Mossotti, 28, a day trader, moved into the Pan Am-run building on 23rd Street 14 months ago, after the developer’s ban had taken effect. After receiving three warnings from management about fumes in the hallway, including a stern letter in September, Mr. Mossotti finally agreed to take his two-a-day cigarette habit to the sidewalk, he said. “You can’t smoke in bars because of the whole secondhand smoke thing, so it doesn’t surprise me,” he said. “But it is irritating.”
1. As a smoker, I agree with Bryan Marx. I think it is perfectly normal to ban smoking in public places such as restaurants or bars. But to forbid smoking in your own house, even if it is rented, is completely absurd. I mean that if you are in your own house or you rent it, you have paid for it and you can do whatever you want if you don't destroy it (and fumes don't destroy any house, as much as I know). Moreover, if you live with someone else they will know whether you smoke or not, so you won't disturb them, above all if you go to your terrace. I think all of us must be tolerable with the other, even if he/she smokes. On the other hand, to ban smoking in the streets around those buildings doesn't take place in my mind.
ReplyDelete2. As I have said, I don't understand the position that the owners have. But in this case, he was smoking in a zone of the building where he can disturb the other people in the building so it is normal that they warned him. However, I would have contiued smoking at home rather than going out to do it. It is completely absurd that you must leave your home to smoke!!!Be tolerable,please, as we (smokers) are with the non-smokers!!!!
3. I think legislation against smokers is necessary but with some limits because we are all people and we all have our rights. Forbiding to smoke in restaurants, bars, offices... is normal but it is not in your own house.
Great input there, Pedro. Just a little correction:
ReplyDeleteSmoke from cigarettes is called smoke, and fumes refer more to unpleasant odors that come from factories, for instance.
Lets see...
ReplyDelete1) Forbid smoking in your own house. Forbid vacuum cleaning on Saturday mornings. Forbid cooking sardines. Period.
Now seriously... Whats the problem in NYC? Banning smoking in your own apartment? This is ridiculous. If your landlord has any problem about it, just make the tenant buy new curtains and paint the whole flat. This will solve the odor problem. Completely agree with Mr. Marx. Do not freely restrain people's freedom.
2) Better off in the long run? It depends. If he finally quit smoking he and his lung might end up grateful to this law. Otherwise he may freeze in any of the -20º C NYC winter's days.
3) Legislation has been necessary since a long time ago (Hammurabi code?). Legislation, rules and a certain degree of punishment. This is necessary in the real world to maintain order while living in society. The problem lays in the relation between infraction and punishment. Over punishment leads to a situation that might be even worse than the original one. So what is my opinion. To be cautious. Smoking should be prosecuted where a real danger of secondhand smoking exists. For me, smoking in a flat do not seem to be this case.