Schenectady MHA should go smoke-free

Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Letter to the Editor
Daily Gazette

Kudos to Jeanie Orr, project coordinator of the Capital District Tobacco-Free Coalition. Her Sept. 3 letter advocating making apartments of the Schenectady Municipal Housing Authority [SMHA] smoke-free was a “breath of fresh air.”

As a SMHA resident who is allergic to cigarette smoke, I think it past time I, and others like me, have a chance to breathe freely and stop seeing the world through a smoke-filled haze.

While I have never smoked, I have lost family members and friends to their addiction to cigarettes. I flinch when I see mothers polluting their lungs and those of their children, and I must stand outside bus shelters rather than inhale the tar and nicotine being spewed by other bus riders who care nothing about my health.

Ms. Orr told me it is completely legal for landlords to remake their units into non-smoking residences, and to enforce non-smoking policies in common areas, indoors and out. And she also informed me that just living in a non-smoking apartment, while neighbors engage in the deadly habit of smoking is not enough. Second-hand smoke can easily travel through air systems and cracks in walls. And second-hand smoke is a class A carcinogen. So, I could develop cancer without ever lighting up. What a terrifying thought!

Ms. Orr told me that SMHA Executive Director Richard Homenick is in favor of making SMHA apartments and buildings smoke-free; but the SMHA board must also be convinced of the cost-effective and health-benefiting effects of eliminating smoking at SMHA. Therefore, I strongly encourage Mr. Homenick and the board to begin the process of eliminating cigarette smoking by conducting a tenant survey, and holding information meetings for tenants and staff.

Katherine Delain

Schenectady