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That's interesting, one of my relatives that has a small apartment complex is dealing with this issue. One of the tenants is complaining about another tenant who smokes. Because the smoke comes out of the smokers window below and goes right into the non-smoker's above.
My relative told the non-smoker that she's sorry, but there's nothing she can do about the smoker, who is smoking in her own unit.
I'm not sure where I would come down on a law like this. A law that bans smoking in your own private home, which is sitting on your own lot, where the smoke cannot unreasonably affect anyone, would of course be bad.
But this law seems to only affect multi-unit apartment complexes that share common walls and floors. It does seem at least designed to address a legit conflict: The smoker should be free to live in their apartment and do what they want, but the non-smoker should also be free to live in their apartment and be free from unwanted second hand smoke.
I suppose the best answer may to not have the law and let the market (i.e., landlords and tenants) decide. But that assumes that there is a free market, I don't know if that is true. For instance, can a landlord legally ban tenants from smoking in their units? If not, it's not really a fair or equal situation.
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