Smoke–free housing informational breakfast held

OXFORD HILLS - Healthy Oxford Hills held an informational breakfast on December 1 for Oxford Hills area landlords. Sarah Mayberry from the Breathe Easy Coalition of Maine was the main presenter; representatives from Community Concepts, R&K Management and Phin Associates, Jeanne Jones and Heather Westleigh from Healthy Oxford Hills were present.

Smoking within apartments in a building allows second-hand smoke, which is very toxic to everyone, especially to the elderly, disabled, children, infants and pets to seep into all the other apartments. It leaves a carcinogenic residue on furniture, walls, rugs and clothing long after the smoke has cleared. Studies have shown that there are no effective means to keep smoke from spreading into the whole building.

The group discussed what a great health risk this is for people who don’t even smoke. Asthma rates increase and lung, bronchial and pneumonia rates increase. Those who have current illnesses are more at risk for increased ill health. Young children and infants are very susceptible because their lungs and other organs are not fully developed. There is no safe level for breathing in another person’s smoke.

Participants talked about the financial benefits of smoke-free housing for landlords, who have higher cleaning costs – at least twice as much – when smoking is allowed in the building. Also, property damage may occur, such as burns in the rugs, or darkened walls. The odor and residue is very unhealthy and time consuming for the maintenance people to clean.

Landlords with smoke free housing policies are not asking people to stop smoking (although that would be good also). They are more concerned about the second-hand smoke that can seriously sicken those who live or work in an apartment building or house, and for the cost that is incurred by landlords. Numerous studies have shown that a large majority of all tenants, including smokers, prefer smoke-free housing.

As more and more rentals become smoke-free, the resources available to both tenants and landlords to help make this transition have become much easier to obtain. Maine has one of the best websites to serve this goal. Visit www.smokefreeforme.org to access resources, sample tenant letters and model leases for making the switch. It is setup to assist both landlords and tenants who want to work on this.

Landlords, please call Healthy Oxford Hills at 739-6222 if you want to change your apartment units to smoke free. Tenants, visit the website for tips and then call your landlord if you would prefer a no-smoking policy inside your apartment building. Smokers can smoke outside.

Healthy Oxford Hills wishes to thank all who attended and looks forward to more dialogue in the future about this timely health issue. Organizers especially thank Jeanne Galvin from Community Concepts and Marcella Kugell from R&K Management whose companies have a larger number of apartments and would take a bit more planning to implement. Also, look for an upcoming interview with Joyce Phinney, an Oxford Hills landlord who has been successful in having her apartment units smoke free for many years. She has been very determined to keep her apartments smoke free.

For more information contact Jeanne Jones and Heather Westleigh at Healthy Oxford Hills (a project of Stephens Memorial Hospital), 739-6222 or e-mail jeanne@healthyoxfordhills.org or heather@healthyoxfordhills.org