Tread carefully on new smoking ban

The adage about a man's home being his castle has been out of date for awhile, what with laws regulating activities from how many pets you can own to how loud your stereo can play to whether you can have a fence.

Now comes news that the Lake County Housing Authority will consider banning smoking in all public housing units. It would remove the last refuge for smokers who earlier this year were prohibited statewide, in a law we supported, from indulging in the habit in virtually every indoor space except their homes.

The proposal, a first in Illinois, was triggered by public housing residents' complaints about smoke from nearby apartments as well as the housing authority's concerns about cigarette-induced fires and the high costs of renovating nicotine-laden apartments after smokers left.

There's no doubt those problems are genuine. Asthma - just one of many diseases worsened by smoking - is on the increase both in number of cases and severity.

One Warren Township woman, an ex-smoker who survived cancer, tells of smoke fumes infiltrating her Warren Manor apartment through vents, from behind kitchen cabinets and through her doors. Sufferers should not have to be exposed to smoke wafting from neighbors' homes into their own.

At the same time, the specter of smokers being kicked out of the only homes they can afford mandates careful consideration before any ban is imposed.

Enforcement difficulties aside, banning smoking in public housing could introduce a host of unintended consequences. Children might be left unsupervised in apartments while parents find a legal place to smoke. Secondhand smoke through windows might increase if smoking is moved outdoors.

We believe free or low-cost smoking cessation programs and aids such as nicotine patches would have to go hand-in-hand with a ban, potentially at substantial cost to the public.

We urge the Lake County Housing Authority to investigate how cigarette smoke spreads throughout its buildings and consider whether simple measures can help, like weatherstripping interior doors and insulating or caulking around electrical outlets and other breaks in the walls between apartments.

The housing authority is on track with its already-announced plan to survey tenants to see how many smoke. Authorities can use that data to take measured steps, such as declaring certain buildings or wings smoke-free rather than moving ahead with a full, countywide ban in public housing units.

With 80 public housing authorities across the nation already smoke-free, there's little surprise the trend has made its way to Illinois. The Lake County Housing Authority happens to be the first in the state to consider banning smoking, but being first is less important than being a model of careful, informed decision-making.