Home invasion: California's new smoking bans.

• Author: Sullum, Jacob
• Position: Citings - Brief article

THE INCREASINGLY stringent smoking bans of the last decade seem to be aimed at transforming what was once a widely accepted habit into a shameful vice practiced only in the privacy of one's home. But even that refuge is no longer available to smokers in Belmont, California, if they happen to live in an apartment or condominium.

Last fall the city council of Belmont, a town halfway between san Jose and San Francisco, adopted what appears to be the first U.S. ordinance that prohibits smoking in private residences. It applies to any housing unit that shares a floor or ceiling with another housing unit, on the theory that the slightest whiff of secondhand smoke poses an intolerable health hazard. Declaring that tobacco smoke is "extremely dangerous" regardless of dose, the ordinance also prohibits smoking in most public...