State and national officials are pushing to make all public housing completely smoke-free, meaning not only could residents not smoke in common areas like hallways and laundry rooms — which is already in state law — but they could not smoke in their apartments either. John Kingsbury with the Minnesota Health Department says under current rules, it’s up to the property manager whether a building is smoke-free — no state law requires it.
He says results from a study are expected in a few weeks, but it appears between 70 and 80 percent of public housing authorities in Minnesota currently have some sort of smoke-free rule.
Kingsbury says in another recent study, residents reported their exposure to second-hand smoke dropped just under 50 percent after smoke-free policies were implemented. He says, “The residents reported that, before the policy,… about 44 percent were being exposed to second-hand smoke. Then afterward that figure dropped to about 23 percent.”
Kingsbury acknowledges some are still smoking when they’re not supposed to, but says “the sites that really do a good job of providing help to those who are trying to quit smoking, the buildings that have those good support resources are the ones that had the most positive outcomes.”
And is this just another example of big government trying to control one more part of people’s lives? MNN’s Bill Werner asked Kingsbury about that: