Letter: “A smoke-free, healthier environment”

BASTA (Bay Area Strength Through Activism) is comprised of youth and adult resident leaders who are currently advocating for the protection of residents who live in apartment complexes from secondhand smoke in unincorporated Alameda County (Ashland, Cherryland, San Lorenzo, Castro Valley, Hayward Acres, Fairview & Sunol). Our goal is to create a smoke-free, healthier environment for Bay Area residents through our advocacy efforts for policy change. We invite you to join our movement and help us achieve a high quality of life for all, regardless of where they live.

Earlier this year, BASTA successfully advocated for a public policy that makes it illegal for store owners to sell tobacco without a tobacco retailing license in unincorporated Alameda County. In December 2019, an East Bay Times article titled “Flavored Tobacco Products Banned In Parts of Alameda County” quotes Supervisor Wilma Chan: “This ordinance for our unincorporated areas will ensure that Alameda County will continue prioritizing the health and safety of our youngest and most vulnerable residents by restricting youth access to tobacco products while encouraging responsible and healthy retailing.” From our success behind the tobacco retail licensing efforts, we believe we can find success in protecting residents who live in apartments and other multi-unit housing from secondhand smoke with a community-wide policy that restricts smoking in multi-unit housing.

We urge you to call your Alameda County supervisors, Nate Miley and Wilma Chan, if secondhand smoke is a problem in your home and you want them to do something about it.

To support our efforts, sign our statement of concern at linktr.ee/bayareastrength. For more information, contact Jade Le at jle@lafamiliacounseling.org. Follow us @bayareastrength on Instagram and Facebook.