Clean Air OC is proudly advocating for the implementation of smoke-free policies in multi-unit housing communities and outdoor public spaces across Orange County, with the goal of protecting residents, visitors, and communities from the harmful and often unavoidable effects of secondhand smoke exposure.
Whether you live in an apartment, townhome, or any other shared housing environment, everyone deserves the right to breathe clean, healthy air in their own home and surrounding spaces. Additionally, smoke-free outdoor policies further extend these protections to parks, walkways, building entrances, and other communal areas where people gather and spend time.
To help make these policies more accessible and easier to understand, we have put together a comprehensive starter guide below that walks you through what smoke-free multi-unit housing and smoke-free outdoor space policies mean, how they would be theoretically enforced, and what steps residents, landlords, and local stakeholders can take to support and adopt these important measures within their own communities.
Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing
What is Our Multi-Unit Housing Policy?
It is a policy that prohibits smoking and vaping of all tobacco products from multi-unit housing of two or more units, including 25 feet from all doors, window, patios, and balconies, and emphasizes a graduated enforcement process.
What is Multi-Unit (Or Multi-Family) Housing?
Multi-unit housing is a residential building with more than one housing unit. This includes but is not limited to: apartments, condominiums, duplexes, and senior-living.
What is a graduated enforcement process?
This means slowly taking steps to enforce no smoking policies.
Our policy will exclude any provision that criminalizes a person for the use or possession of tobacco* products. Instead, we encourage education and connecting people with resources and services to limit or stop their tobacco use.
*Tobacco products and use are not limited to cigarettes. They include, but are not limited to: tobacco pouches, cigars, hookah, cigarillos, and nicotine-based vapes/e-cigarettes.
Smoke-Free Outdoor Spaces
What is a graduated enforcement process?
It is a policy that eliminates smoking in all outdoor recreational and non-recreational public places without designated smoking areas or distances.
What are recreational and non-recreational spaces?
Recreational and non-recreational outdoor spaces include:
- parks
- sidewalks
- dining
- entry ways
- worksites
- event sites
- bike lanes/paths
- alleys
- parking structures
Will you get fined for smoking in public?
We do not encourage the criminalization of smoking and vaping
Our policy will exclude any provision that criminalizes a person for the use or possession of tobacco* products. Instead, we encourage education and connecting people with resources and services to limit or stop their tobacco use.
*Tobacco products and use are not limited to cigarettes. They include, but are not limited to: tobacco pouches, cigars, hookah, cigarillos, and nicotine-based vapes/e-cigarettes.
Do you live in Cypress, Fountain Valley, or La Palma?
Check out our city specific pages to share your opinions on the policies and learn about your city’s current smoke-free policies!