Problem/Objective: Surveys show that more than one third of apartment residents in California are breathing their neighbor's tobacco smoke in their apartment. Yet, most landlords have believed that it is illegal to “discriminate” against people who smoke. The Smokefree Apartment House Registry, www.smokefreeapartments.org was developed to empower landlords to adopt no-smoking policies for their buildings and to empower renters to seek the opportunity to live in smoke-free environments. The Registry's website is a listing of vacant apartments in buildings which are non-smoking.

Methods: Identify apartment owners with non-smoking policies by means of presentation of materials at apartment association trade shows, advertising in apartment association magazines and more mainstream publications, and articles published in apartment association magazines and more mainstream publications.

Results: The Registry lists vacancies for over 280 apartment owners. Other vacancy listing services such as Craig's List and Westside Rental Connection in Los Angeles allow apartment owners to indicate whether a listing requires no smoking inside the apartment. A major university provides a special location on its website for smoke-free off-campus housing.

Conclusions: A listing on the internet of smoke-free apartment buildings is an excellent way to approach the problem of drifting tobacco smoke in multi-unit housing. However, it is not the answer to the problem. When buildings are sold, the smoke-free policy may not be continued by the new owner. Also, owners who adopt smoke-free policies voluntarily can also remove the policy. The next step is education of policy makers so that appropriate legislation can be enacted.