Residents want clean air

News

Posted By IAN MCINROY BARRIE EXAMINER

Updated 1 month ago

Fears about second-hand cigarette smoke have some residents in a county-run apartment building in Barrie looking for answers.

Officials from Simcoe County Housing, which operates the the eight-storey building at 1 Blake Street, met with about 30 of the residents earlier this week. A Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit public health nurse also attended.

Resident Albert Coulis, who has lived there since September, circulated a petition asking the county to do something about the second-hand smoke, and gathered signatures from 63 of the 91 tenants.

For starters, Coulis wants the county to pay for weatherstripping that would be installed around apartment doors to reduce the amount of drifting second-hand smoke.

"It's the responsibility of landlords to ensure we are enjoying quality of life," he said. "As nonsmokers, we have the right to breathe clean air, free from secondhand cigarette smoke and toxins. That is all we want: clean air."

Coulis, who has struggled for 14 years with a lung condition, said this is not an attempt by him to stop tenants from smoking in their own apartments.

"They have that right under the law. I'd like to see the county have a proper air system here," he said. "They should install air conditioning on the roof at a cost that's less than that of a human life."

Terry McErlean, public housing manager for Simcoe County Housing, said the building's ventilation system is not the culprit.

"There are strong opinions on both sides of the argument and we have to look at all the options," he said.

McErlean said the quickest solution is for residents to apply the weather stripping -- at their own cost -- but they would have to ensure the door still latches shut to meet fire code regulations. As the stripping would stop air flow under the doors, there would also need to be other ways of circulating air to avoid a buildup of mould and other problems.

John Park is a smoker who has lived in the building for four years and said he and his fellow smokers aren't trying to make trouble for other residents.

He said he's already applied weather stripping on the doors of of four apartments in the building.

Linda Quennell, a public health nurse with the health unit, told residents only about 25% of the general population smokes.

"People don't smoke in public places or workplaces any more because of second-hand smoke," she said. "We'd like to get people who do smoke to smoke outside. It's a matter of protecting those people who don't smoke."

She'd like the county to consider making its housing 100% smoke-free, as the Region of Waterloo has done.

"If you can smell it, you're inhaling it. The only way to solve the issue is to have a smoke-free, multi-unit option," she said.

McErlean said designated smoke-free facilities could be problematic.

"We'll have to look at that. Some of our buildings are the only subsidized housing in some areas," he said. "To make it a non-smoking building, do you make a 90-year-old senior homeless because they smoke?"

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