Smoking

This was in the headlines today......Smokers are being increasingly pushed to the wayside as bans on smoking sweep across cities from the West to the East coasts,quit smoking, from the work place to restaurants. It seems there is no place to light up indoors anymore. But when does the ban on public smoking become private?Two neighbors are feuding in New York over secondhand smoke seeping into a public hallway, as reported in the New York Times. One neighbor is a 57-year-old chain-smoking restaurateur who says she has been a smoker for four decades. She admits to feeling guilty over not being able to quit, and claims she uses air purifiers and door seals to ward against smoke seepage. Her neighbors, a couple, both 40 and lawyers, claim her efforts are not stopping the smoke fumes from infecting the hallway where their young son is exposed to her secondhand smoke. But do they have the right to restrict her smoking in her own apartment? The well-documented dangers of secondhand smoke are many, ranging from lung cancer to heart disease, and possibly many other cancers,smoking cessation, such as breast and cervical cancer. Secondhand smoke exposure has been concluded to be unsafe at any level, according to a June 2006 report by the U.S. Surgeon General. The report went further, stating there must be a ban on indoor smoking entirely in order to fully protect nonsmokers. But, should your own apartment be considered a smoke-free zone, simply because it's indoors? Perhaps, if that apartment has a shared hallway where smoke can collect. What this means to smokers in their own apartments is still up for debate. Home may not be a sanctuary for smokers much longer. Bob