Bloomberg seeks to disclose smoking areas in residential buildings

In the latest effort to ban smoking in New York City, the City Council is expected to propose legislation today at the urging of Mayor Michael Bloomberg that would require residential buildings to inform prospective tenants and building owners of where residents can and cannot smoke inside and outside of  their condominium, co-op or rental building, the Wall Street Journal reported. In addition, according to the Journal, “it would require buildings to develop policies that address whether smoking is permitted in both indoor and outdoor locations, including lobbies, balconies, courtyards, laundry rooms and, most controversially, individual apartments.”

“We think that people ought to know whether they might be exposed to second-hand smoke in their apartment before they decide whether to rent or buy,” Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Commissioner Thomas Farley told the Journal.

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The penalty per smoking violation would be $100 with individual buildings responsible for enforcing their own rules, the Journal said. If approved, the bill would go into effect 90 days later. Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said that the speed with which the law would be in place wouldn’t give many condo and co-op boards sufficient time to develop their smoking policies.

As previously reported, New York City condo and co-op boards are already increasingly considering banning smoking entirely in their buildings. A Queens activist is also making his own push to enact a smoking ban in all multi-family buildings around the city. [WSJ]