Boulder County Proposes Smoking Ban Surveys For HOAs, Private Complexes

In addition to the surveys it plans for the Boulder Housing Authority-managed properties--polling residents to determine if a smoking ban is wanted, Boulder County urges private home owner associations and privately managed housing complexes to consider banning smoking through a polling mechanism. So much for private property rights--say hello to your new nanny-state overlords, aided and abetted by your neighbors:

Boulder County is considering snuffing out smoking inside Boulder Housing Authority-managed apartment, condominium and townhouse complexes — and health officials would like homeowners' associations to weigh similar bans in private buildings.

The county's public health division, along with the housing authority, distributed a 12-question survey last month to the 467 residents living in its scattered complexes, asking whether they'd support a smoking ban for every unit in their building.

If most tenants support building-wide bans, Boulder County Public Health and the Housing Authority will consider a smoking prohibition. If most tenants reject the idea, the authority probably won't, said EricAakko, the county's tobacco education coordinator.

"Most buildings aren't designed to have smokers in one area and not in the next," said Aakko, noting that 50 percent of the air in multi-unit housing complexes recirculates throughout the buildings because ventilation systems aren't equipped to filter out smoke.

"The surgeon general has been clear: There is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke."

Katie Case, who lives in a Housing Authority complex on Broadway, said she's opposed to having smoke in her house — but she also respects people's freedoms. She's particularly sensitive to the issue in the winter, when it can be too cold to smoke outside.

Mark Rosinski takes a smoke break Friday at the apartment where he is doing maintenance work. He said he would not support further smoking bans in Boulder.

"With the bar bans, if you can't smoke at your house, you can't smoke at all," Case, 23, said.

Still, because of associated health risks, Case said she'll support a building-wide ban.

"But it is getting a little invasive," she said.

Ya think?

And how about that logic--the proposal is invasive, but she'll still vote for it! So much for personal freedom on private property, if your neighbors don't like it, no smoking for you, even inside your own home! And all under the presumed veil of "democratic" polling of the HOA or housing units. With neighbors using logic like this woman, a quick puff may earn you heavy fines, and perhaps a trip to the nearest moonbat reeducation camp.

And to think, when the public area bans were first proposed, there were claims that smoking on private property would never be a target. Nanny-state creep is all the rage, especially in smoking prohibition.