Smoking bans at Berkeley’s castle walls

A city council member in Berkeley, California, USA, is calling for a tobacco smoking ban in some single-family homes, according to a story by Carolyn Jones for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Councilman Jesse Arreguin said that a proposal to ban cigarette smoking in apartments and condos, where smoke can waft through ventilation systems, was not tough enough or fair.

He said his fellow council members should consider expanding the proposed ban to include single-family homes where children, seniors or lodgers were present.

Jones described how cigarette smoking was already prohibited in Berkeley’s commercial districts, parks and bus stops, and within 25 feet of any building open to the public; and how the council planned to extend the ban to all apartments, condominiums and other multi-unit buildings where secondhand smoke can spread.