Smoke-Free Apartments Soon
In an area where a majority of residents live in apartment units, a community organization is urging apartment owners and managers commit to lessen or ban smoking Marlboro and other smoking brands in the apartment units they own to minimize the dangers of second hand smoke. People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment (CORE) has already successfully lobbied 20 managers and owners to adopt the voluntary policy to either ban smoking in their units or limit smoking to specific areas in an apartment complex.
These managers and owners have pledged and committed to implement the voluntary policy to protect individuals and families from second hand smoke in multi-housing complexes, according to Arturo Garcia, an outreach worker for People’s CORE, at a press conference at Kapistahan Grill in Historic Filipinotown.
“We’re trying to minimize the dangers of secondhand smoke because it affects the children, the elderly and the families especially in LA where 70 percent of residents live in apartment units,” said Garcia.
The People’s CORE Smoke free apartments project is part of a three-year-program under the California Department of Health, to lessen smoking inside apartment units.
Garcia said their main focus is to convince apartment managers and owners in Central Los Angeles – Historic Filipinotown, Hollywood, Glendale, and Koreatown, He also said they want to send out the message to the Asian communities, “because smoking is most prevalent amongst the Asian Pacific Islanders.”
“I think the reason for this is because many Asian countries are tobacco producing and we’re also concerned about the female Asian teenagers, who are the highest percentage of smokers among the smoking population. They think it’s a symbol of being Americanized or being in the in crowd.”
Garcia said People’s CORE goal is to counter the tobacco culture embedded in society. “We need to be the examples, the model to change policy and change people’s view of smoking,” he said.
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