Tobacco Intrusion Investigations: An effective tool in strengthening urban public health policy development

The air exchange between units in a multi-unit residential building is one of many routes for tobacco smoke intrusion. There is only a handful of rules and policies addressing this issue where quality of life and health of a non-smoker may be adversely affected by the tobacco smoke intrusion. It is believed that use of third party investigators with expertise and appropriate equipment results in a reasonable conclusion and increases likelihood of strengthening future policies and possible public health laws. This report describes the applied methods of measurement, nature of the problem, and collaboration among involved parties as factors required for reaching an acceptable remedy. Those include physical and structural changes to create barrier between units, developing new policies to enhance communication and quality of life for all parties, initiating effective approaches applicable to drafting new leasing or purchasing contract, and public health policy modification.