Re: “Smoking ban having an unexpected benefit” (editorial, 5-10).

While it’s great news to hear that fewer teens are taking up smoking due to the smoking ban in bars and restaurants, I have to wonder why there is still no movement toward banning smoking in multifamily housing. If we are all for a smoke-free atmosphere in clubs where teens spend at most a few hours a week, why do we tolerate 24/7 exposure to secondhand smoke in apartments and condos, where smoke infiltrating into adjacent units causes untold damage to children’s developing hearts and lungs?

Such children and their families are sitting ducks, unable to protect themselves against a health threat in their own homes. Meanwhile, the neighbors puffing away “in the privacy of their own homes” become a drain on public health systems of this state.

As a human services worker, I have noticed that my sickest clients, the ones who are so ill they are unable to come into the office and require a home visit, are more often than not smokers. These clients, many on Medicare and Medicaid, do willful damage to their own and their neighbor’s health which we all must pay for. It’s time for our elected representatives to stand up for what is not only right, but logical – a ban on smoking in multifamily housing in Pierce County.