TALC’s fact sheet “How Disability Laws Can Help Tenants Suffering from Drifting Tobacco Smoke” is designed for people who have a medical condition that is made worse by secondhand smoke drifting into their apartments. Landlords can be required by law to make reasonable changes to accommodate a tenant’s respiratory disability or other disability that is worsened by secondhand smoke exposure.

You could pursue any or all the three possible strategies outlined below. (Note that this information is specific to people living in a single-family home in California. If you live in an apartment or a condominium and are affected by drifting secondhand smoke, see separate questions regarding these situations.)

Exposure to secondhand smoke kills 58,000 people each year. It can be especially dangerous to children with allergies and certain respiratory diseases, like asthma. Because children are particularly susceptible to secondhand smoke, many parents may want to ensure that they protect their children from exposure at home. This fact sheet provides information for attorneys and legal advisors about how parents in California can protect their children from secondhand smoke in the home, with a focus on those instances when parents are divorcing or separating.

This 2009 booklet (and a 2010 supplement) provides summaries of tobacco laws that affect California. It is designed as a resource for tobacco control advocates, government attorneys, local law enforcement agencies, and anyone who is working on tobacco control issues.

There is a growing awareness that tenants of apartment buildings are often exposed to drifting secondhand smoke. To address this problem, communities are beginning to consider laws to restrict smoking in common areas and individual units of multi-unit housing. As these communities craft such laws, they face an important question: How will the new law be enforced?

If tobacco smoke drifts into your apartment from a neighboring unit, causing you illness or discomfort, you may wonder whether you can take legal action. Suing your neighbor or landlord is an option, but it should be your last resort. Lawsuits are time consuming, expensive, and contentious, and the outcome is always uncertain. In a lawsuit regarding drifting tobacco smoke in an apartment building, the result is especially unpredictable because very few cases, and no state laws, are directly relevant.

Although Californians have extensive protections from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke where they work, eat, and play, some are still exposed to secondhand smoke where they live. Landlords and property managers can protect tenants from exposure to secondhand smoke by prohibiting smoking in common areas and in individual rental units.

If you have a medical condition made worse by secondhand smoke drifting into your apartment, federal and state disability laws might help you address the problem. Depending on the nature of your disability, your landlord may be required to make changes to reduce your exposure.