The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a final rule to restrict smoking in public housing. The ruling was announced at the end of November and will require public housing developments to offer a smoke-free environment to their residents. According to the Centers for Disease Control, this will save housing agencies millions of dollars each year in smoke-related repairs and preventable fires. The health educator with Allen County Public Health says the ruling will also save people from the risk of second-hand and residual smoke left behind.
"Even though there's no active smoking occurring, it's still in the carpet, it's in the rugs, it's in the curtains, and so babies crawling around on the floor can breath it in and people sitting on a couch can breath it in and it still will affect them after a while being exposed to that," Shelly Miller said.
The rule also prohibits people to smoke within 25 feet of the public housing and is expected to be effective starting mid-2018.
