The Doctors TV Show was focused on the topic of “Your Health In The Headlines” today – meaning that they covered many of the topics that are hot and controversial right now. The Drs TV Show spoke about a potential Smoking Ban in Apartments. How far should people go to ban smoking? 
The Doctors TV Show: Smoking Ban in Apartments
The Doctors showed clips of a lady who had a smoker move in the apartment beneath her and, all of a sudden, she became exposed to smoke regularly. She was with a friend at a doctor, and the doctor said that he could hear her wheezing and told her to have it checked out. Sure enough, she found out that the second hand smoke was making her sick. She is now pushing to get second hand smoke declared as a legal nuisance in apartment buildings. Second-Hand Smoke can cause all kinds of problems including SIDS, Asthma, Respiratory Infections and Ear Infections. Should smoking be banned in apartment buildings? The Doctors TV Show audience voted and 75% of the audience said that smoking should be banned in apartment buildings.
Dr Jim Sears said that he had this exact problem when he lived on the first floor of an apartment building and some smokers moved in above him. Every morning he would wake up and see cigarette butts all over his porch because they would just drop their cigarettes – disgusting! Dr Travis Stork said that people pay rent to live there, though, so they should be able to do whatever they want. However, I disagree – an apartment building does not belong to any one tenant – they are all sharing the spaces and, in most cases, common ventilation systems. Dr Lisa Masterson noted that cooking fumes from neighboring apartments can be similarly offensive and should not be banned. But the point is that second hand smoke is a health threat, whereas cooking smells are not.
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