New federal rules would ban smoking in public housing | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

New federal rules would ban smoking in public housing | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "New federal rules would ban smoking in public housing November 13, 2015 12:00 AM www.jupiterimages.com The county housing authority has already developed a no-smoking plan for 21 senior citizen high-rises. Share with others: 0 inShare Related Media: Do e-cigarettes lead to cigarette smoking? By Molly Born / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Allegheny County Housing Authority has viewed a smoking ban at most of its high-rises as a successful move toward addressing the health and public safety hazards of lighting up indoors. But enforcing that rule at other agency-managed public housing communities — which would be required under a federal proposal announced Thursday — might prove to be a more difficult undertaking. “In a scattered site [of] homes or in a townhouse-type structure, it’s going to be virtually impossible,” the authority’s executive director, Frank Aggazio, said of enforcing a smoking ban in those areas. “We don’t want to be the smoking police.” The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a proposed rule Thursday that would require each public housing agency to implement a policy banning cigarettes, pipes and cigars in all indoor areas and outside within 25 feet of housing and administrative office buildings. E-cigarettes would be permitted, but HUD is asking for public comment on them and “may prohibit the use of these products in public housing in the final rule,” it said in the plan."