Baltimore City Council
File #: 16-0289R    Version: 0 Name: Request for Federal Action - Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing
Type: City Council Resolution Status: Failed - End of Term
File created: 2/8/2016 In control: Health Committee
On agenda: Final action: 12/5/2016
Enactment #:
Title: Request for Federal Action - Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing FOR the purpose of calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to enact the proposed rule Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing requiring each public housing agency administering public housing to implement a smoke-free policy.
Sponsors: Helen L. Holton, President Young, James B. Kraft, Sharon Green Middleton, Eric T. Costello, Brandon M. Scott, Bill Henry, William "Pete" Welch, Mary Pat Clarke, Edward Reisinger
Indexes: Public Housing, Request for State Action, Smoke-Free
Attachments: 1. 16-0289R~1st Reader

* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.

THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.

                     INTRODUCTORY*

 

                     CITY OF BALTIMORE

                     COUNCIL BILL           R

                     (Resolution)

                                                                                                                                                           

Introduced by: Councilmember Holton

                                                                                                                                                           

 

                     A RESOLUTION ENTITLED

 

A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning

title

Request for Federal Action - Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing

FOR the purpose of calling on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to enact the proposed rule Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing requiring each public housing agency administering public housing to implement a smoke-free policy.

body

 

Recitals

  

   The 2006 U.S. Surgeon General�s Report, The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke, has concluded that (1) secondhand smoke exposure causes disease and premature death in children and adults who do not smoke; (2) children exposed to secondhand smoke are at an increased risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), acute respiratory problems, ear infections, and asthma attacks, and that exposure to smoke slows lung growth in children; (3) exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer; and (4) there is no riskfree level of exposure to secondhand smoke.  Research reviewed in the Surgeon General�s Report indicates that smoke-free policies are the most economic and effective approach for providing protection from exposure to secondhand smoke.

 

   Numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution, and that breathing secondhand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is a cause of disease in healthy nonsmokers, including heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease, and lung cancer.  The National Cancer Institute determined in 1999 that secondhand smoke is responsible for the early deaths of approximately 53,000 Americans annually.

 

   The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that there is sufficient evidence that secondhand smoke causes cancer in humans and classified secondhand smoke as a Group A carcinogen.  In 2002, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services formally listed secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen in The U.S. National Toxicology Program�s 10th Report on Carcinogens.

 

   In 2006, the California Environmental Protection Agency�s Air Resources Board determined that secondhand smoke is a toxic air contaminant, finding that exposure to secondhand smoke has serious health effects, including low birth-weight babies, SIDS, increased respiratory infections in children, asthma in children and adults, lung cancer, sinus cancer, and breast cancer in younger, pre-menopausal women, heart disease, and death.

 

 

 

   Inasmuch as there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) bases its ventilation standards on totally smoke-free environments.  ASHRAE has determined that there is currently no air filtration or other ventilation technology that can completely eliminate all the carcinogenic components in secondhand smoke and the health risks caused by secondhand smoke exposure, and recommends that indoor environments be smoke-free in their entirety.

 

   In light of this overwhelming evidence that any exposure to secondhand smoke is profoundly dangerous, it is imperative that the Department of Housing and Urban Development enact and enforce smokefree public housing regulations to avoid further endangering the health and wellbeing of our public housing residents.

 

   NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Council calls on the Department of Housing and Urban Development to enact the proposed rule Instituting Smoke-Free Public Housing requiring each public housing agency administering public housing to implement a smoke-free policy.

 

   AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Secretary of Housing and Urban development, the Mayor, the Housing Commissioner, and the Mayor�s Legislative Liaison to the City Council.

 

 

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