Group Seeks To Expand South Bay Smoking Bans
SAN JOSE (KCBS) -- An anti-smoking group in Silicon Valley is trying to get more cities to enact smoking bans in apartment buildings, condos and townhouses. Santa Clara County passed such an ordinance last year, and now Breathe California is hoping the effort can spread to the more urban areas.
KCBS' Mike Colgan Reports:
The ordinance, which takes effect next year in the unincorporated parts of the county, was authored by Supervisor Ken Yeager.
"We learn more and more about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke," said Yeager. "And nothing is worse than living in some of these apartments where adults, and particularly the kids, are inhaling this second and third-hand smoke that exists. We know from studies that the health effects are really terrible."
Stanford professor Neil Kelpeis recently completed a study that showed smoke can easily spread from one apartment to another.
"There are a lot of tiny cracks and crevices between these apartments, and if there's enough air flow going in between them the smoke can go into an adjoining unit," said Kelpeis.
The latest numbers show that only one in ten Silicon Valley residents still smoke.
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