W09 Writing Practice: Formatting

Name: Joel Haro

Instruction
For your Writing Practice this week, you will practice properly formatting an academic
paper by applying the six principles you learned this week (i.e. font, spacing, margins,
heading, title, paragraphs) to the sample essay below. Please correct and/or add the
necessary information to correct the formatting errors.

Jane Doe

Sister Jackson

PC 101: Life Skills

13 November 2019

Smoke-Free Public Housing

Living in public housing, such as an apartment, comes with many inconveniences. Loud,

obnoxious neighbors and a lack of privacy are among a few annoyances any tenants can typically

expect. However, secondhand smoke from other tenants is one inconvenience no one should ever

have to live with. In years past, restaurants would offer, “Smoking or non-smoking?” Yet in

public housing, occupants are haphazardly wedged in between apartments where secondhand

smoke can plague the surrounding neighbors and even put their health at risk. Ergo, the

government should enforce smoke-free policies in public housing to ensure that non-smokers

have clean air to breathe inside their residences.

 About five years ago my husband, our two children and I moved into an apartment. We

dealt with the typical inconveniences of apartment living including the occasional cigarette

smoke coming in through an open window. In those instances we would just shut the window to

keep the smoke and smell out. After a year, two chain-smokers moved in next door to us.

Unfortunately, there was nothing we could do to prevent their smoke from invading our

apartment. The smoke transferred from their unit to ours through electrical outlets, vents, and

even the plumbing. At times it was so pungent that there was a visible haze in the air. We shared

our concerns with the apartment manager, but she told us there was nothing she could do, since

there were no smoking policies in place. She suggested we talk or write a letter to our neighbors

and ask them to stop smoking inside their apartment. Without delay my husband asked our

neighbors to smoke outside, so the smoke wouldn’t travel into our apartment. Despite my

husband’s plea, they continued smoking inside. It was so frustrating to remain in such unhealthy

conditions. As a mother of two little ones, I feared for my children’s health everyday. Moving

was the only way to escape this health hazard, but for financial reasons, it wasn’t an option for us

at that time. I simply felt helpless.

In the following months, I was distraught and disgusted every time I breathed in the toxic

fumes from my neighbor’s cigarettes. My husband and I did some research and were shocked

that Washington State’s smoking Initiative 901 didn’t include public housing. The initiative

known as Smoking in Public Places Law, “Prohibits smoking in all restaurants and bars by

amending the state’s 1985 Clean Indoor Air Act. Today, the definition of "public place" includes

bars, restaurants, bowling centers, skating rinks, and non-tribal casinos. The definition also

includes private residences used to provide childcare, foster care, adult care, or similar social

services, and at least 75 percent of the sleeping quarters within a hotel.” Even with the state’s
smoke-free laws in place, which protects everyone in any public place, my family was left

unprotected while living in public housing.

In trying to make sense of Initiative 901, I considered how implementing smoke-free

housing laws would infringe on a smoker’s right to smoke in their own residence. The law would

have led to countless evictions of smoker’s and their families, and unless willing to comply,

would completely exclude them from living in public housing. I can empathize with that kind of

situation nonetheless, smoking is an addiction and “. . . is not a protected behavior under any

federal, state or local laws.”

For those who choose to smoke, they willingly subject themselves to many health

risks. “Each year about 443,000 people in the United States die from illnesses related to

tobacco use.” Among those deaths secondhand smoke is responsible for about 3,400 deaths

from lung cancer and as many as 69,600 deaths from heart disease. Children are even more

susceptible to the damaging health effects from secondhand smoke, which increases their risk

for asthma, SIDS, pneumonia, bronchitis and middle ear infections. Up to 1,000,000 asthmatic

children’s condition worsened, this past year, due to smoke exposure. Allowing smoker’s

hazardous toxins to claim more lives, or deteriorate the health of innocent victims is a

dangerous oversight in the law that needs to be addressed.

As of right now the Housing and Urban Development (HUD), “strongly encourages

Public Housing Authorities (PHA) to implement non-smoking polices in some or all of their

public housing units.” However, instead of just encouraging policies, HUD should require PHAs

to enforce them, or where possible, segregate smoking and non-smoking units as they do in

hotels.
 With all we know about secondhand smoke, we can’t just standby and allow this grim

reaping to continue. The health risks are too significant and we need the government to ensure

the public’s health and rights. Necessitating all PHAs to implement a smoke–free public

housing policy, would secure the rights for all non-smokers to breathe smoke-free air within

their own residence. It would prevent numerous victims from being affected, ultimately

making it in the best interest of the public. No matter what anyone’s living situation is, no one

should have to live with secondhand smoke, because it’s so much more than just an

inconvenience.