The City Council has received a number of complaints from nonsmoker residents of multi-unit residences that residents who smoke in the project are causing secondhand smoke to intrude into the nonsmokers’ units.
a.
The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
b.
The California Air Resources Board has placed secondhand smoke in the same category as the most toxic automotive and industrial air pollutants by categorizing it as a toxic air contaminant for which there is no safe level of exposure.
c.
The California Environmental Protection Agency has included secondhand smoke on the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm.
The City Council, by enacting this article, intends to establish reasonable regulations to protect the public health, safety and welfare against the health hazards and harmful effects of the use of addictive tobacco products; and further to maintain a balance between the desires of persons who smoke and the need of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air, while recognizing that where these conflict, the need to breathe smoke-free air shall have priority. Because of the close proximity of living units in multi-unit residences, and sometimes due to shared heating, cooling and ventilation systems, and because of voids between units, secondhand smoke is a particularly sensitive issue to residents in multi-unit residences.
(Ord. 03-14, 2/11/2014)