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Smoke alarm: Oklahoma tenants get few tobacco-free options

 
BY VALLERY BROWN | Published: April 25, 2009    Comment on this article Leave a comment


Laura Clay says she was being poisoned by a neighbor’s cigarette smoke.

photo - Laura Clay holds her son Cameron who was born prematurely while Clay was living in an apartment in Norman. Photo by STEVE SISNEY, THE OKLAHOMAN
Laura Clay holds her son Cameron who was born prematurely while Clay was living in an apartment in Norman. Photo by STEVE SISNEY, THE OKLAHOMAN

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Clay, 31, of Norman, said she started complaining to her landlord about the smoke coming in the vents of her apartment a short time after moving there in 2007. When her 8-year-old daughter’s asthma worsened and her son was born prematurely in summer 2008, Clay quit asking and started demanding that something be done.

"They told me there was nothing they could do,” Clay said, "that my neighbors had every right to smoke in their apartment. But we couldn’t breathe.”

Clay said the manager refused to move her to another unit, and efforts to fix the ventilation didn’t work. Her husband was away in the military and she had no money to move. She was evicted when she refused to pay.

Then she started calling around for advice.

She reached Doug Matheny, tobacco use prevention chief for the state Health Department. He said secondhand smoke exposure in multi-unit housing like apartment complexes is an issue he regularly gets calls about.

Municipalities and counties across the country, including areas in Washington, California and Minnesota, have already banned or restricted smoking in multi-unit or public housing.

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Related Topics: Health and Fitness, Health Care Issues, Smoking and Tobacco Use



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