So HUD is angling to ban smoking in public housing? What the Fuck??

[pnwmom]

15. It's all about allowing non-smokers, many of whom are children, to breathe clean air.

Children in public housing have high rates of asthma and one of the problems is the air they're breathing.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/the-elusive-smoke-free-home/

Many parents have a no-smoking rule when it comes to the home. But if you live in an apartment and the neighbor upstairs lights up, is your child exposed to cigarette smoke?

Yes, says a new study that analyzed a marker of tobacco exposure in children’s blood samples. The study tested for cotinine, a tobacco metabolite used to assess exposure to secondhand smoke, and found that children living in apartments had higher levels of the chemical in their systems than those who lived in detached houses, even though their own units were smoke-free zones.

Children living in town houses with shared walls had the same problem, the study found, though to a lesser degree. Average blood levels of cotinine for these children were lower than for children living in apartments but higher than for those living in detached houses.

The study is the first, the authors say, to provide evidence not only that cigarette smoke flows from one unit to another through vents and air ducts, but that children living in multiunit housing are exposed to smoke involuntarily, on a regular basis, even when their parents are trying to protect them. It didn’t matter how wealthy the families were — if they lived in an apartment, their children were exposed to more tobacco.