Monday, July 1, 2024
Port Hueneme City Hall
250 North Ventura Road, Port Hueneme, CA 93041
5:30 PM Closed Session | 6:30 PM Regular Meeting
Attached is correspondence related to Agenda Item No. 9: Smoking in Multi-Unit Residential Buildings: Survey Results and Consideration of City Regulations, which was received following the posting and distribution of the July 1, 2024, Agenda:
• Email including letter of support received from Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights’, dated Friday, June 28, 2024
From: Liz Williams
Sent: Friday, June 28, 2024 1:39 PM
To: Council WebMail
Subject: Leer of support for smokefree mul-unit housing Aachments: Leer to Port Hueneme CA_MUH_06.28.24.pdf
Dear Mayor Perez and members of the Port Hueneme City Council, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights would like to submit the aached leer of support for expanding Port Hueneme's smokefree protecons to include mul-unit housing.
Sincerely,
Liz Williams (she/her)
Project & Policy Manager
Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights |nonsmokersrights.org
American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundaon |no-smoke.org
2530 San Pablo Ave, Suite J | Berkeley, CA 94702
510-841-3032 x314 (office)
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PO Box 2941, Berkeley, CA 94702 • 510.841.3032 • nonsmokersrights.org ANR is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit lobbying organization and contributions are not tax deductible. Tax ID: #94-598713 June 28, 2024
Mayor Misty Perez
Port Hueneme City Hall
250 N Ventura Road
Port Hueneme, CA 93041
Dear Mayor Perez and members of the Port Hueneme City Council, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights is writing to express our support for a 100% smokefree multi-unit housing ordinance to protect the health and safety of multi-unit residents in Port Hueneme. Taking action on this important public health issue will help ensure everyone’s right to a smokefree living environment.
Port Hueneme has the opportunity to be a public health leader by protecting your residents from the harmful effects of secondhand tobacco and marijuana smoke by prohibiting smoking in all multi-unit residences, including apartments and condominiums. Smokefree multi-unit housing is a powerful way to have a broad, positive community impact by reducing secondhand exposure where people spend much of their time—especially children, the elderly, and people with disabilities—and can suffer from persistent levels of exposure.
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights strongly recommends that smokefree protections apply to all types of multi-unit residential properties. The Moorpark ordinance included in the staff report contains a significant gap in coverage. While it applies to rental multi-unit residences, it does not extend smokefree protections to owner-occupied multi-unit residences, like condominiums and townhomes.
All Port Hueneme residents of multi-unit properties should be able to breathe smokefree air at home and enjoy reduced health risks and fire risks. Secondhand smoke is an equal opportunity health hazard, regardless of whether a person rents or owns their unit. Port Hueneme families who live in owner-occupied multi-unit residences should not be left behind.
Port Hueneme would be in good company by joining the California communities with laws requiring all multi-unit housing properties to be 100% smokefree—including the 85% of communities that extend smokefree protections to both rental and owner-occupied properties.
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights also strongly supports including an expanded definition of smoking that includes both the use of vaping products, as well as cannabis smoking and vaping, which is very important given that exposure to all types of secondhand smoke, and aerosol from vaping products, poses health risks to residents. Likewise, the comprehensive definition will facilitate compliance, because it is easier to understand, communicate, implement, and enforce a policy when all types of smoking and vaping are treated equally.
Port Hueneme’s multi-unit residents should be able to breathe air that is free from all types of secondhand smoke exposure from both tobacco and cannabis. Cannabis should not be smoked or vaped inside multi-unit residences, just like it should not be smoked or vaped inside workplaces, because cannabis secondhand smoke and aerosol are sources of indoor pollution that poses health risks to non-users. While cannabis is now legal, it should not be used in ways that harm other people.
PO Box 2941, Berkeley, California 94702 • 510.841.3032 • nonsmokersrights.org ANR is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit lobbying organization and contributions are not tax deductible. Tax ID: #94- 598713
Action needs to be taken because secondhand smoke does not stay in the unit of a person who smokes.
Secondhand smoke can drift through multi-unit buildings and enter common areas and units occupied by non-smokers, where it becomes a nuisance and health risk to other residents. Research shows that up to 65% of the air in an apartment unit can come from other units in the building, and that secondhand smoke drifts under doors, through windows, hallways, and ventilation ducts, and through gaps around outlets, pipes, fixtures, and walls.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 5 million California multiunit housing residents who keep a smokefree home are still exposed to a neighbor’s secondhand smoke. The U.S. Surgeon General confirmed that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and that exposure can have both short and long term health risks, especially for people with existing health conditions like asthma and other respiratory conditions, heart disease, and cancer.
Smokefree multi-unit housing can help address health disparities faced by low-income residents and communities of color living in multi-unit residences. The CDC reports that 2 in every 5 children— including 7 in 10 black children—remain exposed to secondhand smoke, and the U.S. Surgeon General confirmed that the home is the primary place children are exposed. Studies show high rates of exposure to secondhand smoke in low-income multi-unit housing, and lower-income individuals are also more likely to have health conditions that are exacerbated by secondhand smoke.
Smokefree multi-unit buildings create a healthier living environment for all residents, including people who smoke and their families. It’s important to note that a smokefree building does not mean that people who smoke have to quit and it does not require people who smoke to move out. People who smoke simply need to go outdoors to appropriate areas to do so.
All multi-unit residents in Port Hueneme deserve a stable and healthy living environment, including the right to breathe smokefree air at home.
Thank you for your leadership and desire to make Port Hueneme the best place to live, work, and visit.
Please feel free to contact me at 510-841-3045 if you have questions, comments, or feedback.
Sincerely,
Cynthia Hallett, MPH
President and CEO
Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights is a national, member-based, not-for-profit organization based in Berkeley, CA that is dedicated to helping nonsmokers breathe smokefree air since 1976.