COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Some say it's about freedom to do as they please in their home. Others say it's about public health, and the government's role in ensuring the right to breathe free.
Rose Reed is a musician, a mother and now an activist for bringing smoke-free housing options to the Colorado Springs Public Housing Authority.
After a year of submitting "reasonable accommodation forms" asking for a non-smoking option, "no" is a word she's heard often.
"Maybe their heart is in the right place, and there were too many road blocks. I just don't know how to rationalize their perspective... they don't realize smoke travels,” she said.
Research from the statewide non-profit "Group to Alleviate Smoke Pollution," or G.A.S.P. shows 50% of smoke travels into apartments living near smokers.
"Smoke seeps through the walls, the floors, the door, it comes in every direction," Rich Breidenbach, on the Board of Directors of G.A.S.P. explained.
Breidenbach has been appealing to the City Council alongside Reed's daughter, Elizabeth, and said the city told them it wasn't worth it to even speak, because Elizabeth had been there many times before and what they say won't make a difference.
"Rose Reed is most likely going to die from this. Because they refuse to do anything to abide by her sensitivity to tobacco smoke. It is worth killing her for the inconvenience of changing things?" Breidenbach said.
This issue, however, is much more than the Reeds.
The Federal HUD says: "Because Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) can migrate between units in multifamily housing, causing respiratory illness, heart disease, cancer, and other adverse health effects in neighboring families, the Department is encouraging PHAs [public housing authorities] to adopt non-smoking policies."
After so many states banned smoking in public places, cities around the U.S. are considering how to limit smoking in public housing as well.
A number of cities in California have implemented a non-smoking ban in apartments, and 28 in Colorado have, too, including the city of Boulder.
The Boulder Housing Partners put a non-smoking ban into effect in a one-building trial in 2009 following the adoption of a clean air goal. Then two years later, they expanded it to cover all their housing. The group took years deliberating the needs of those who smoke versus those affected by second-hand smoke. They say it's something that needs time to discuss.
Valorie Jordan of Colorado Springs Housing Developemtn said it's a "catch 22" situation. She added that discussions are in the initial stages.
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