SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Map, News) - California apartment complexes could be declared smoke-free zones under legislation that's scheduled to be considered this week by a state Senate committee.

Sen. Alex Padilla says his bill would ensure that owners of rental housing have the option to ban smoking.

"The way the law is (currently) written..., it's not explicit for landlords to declare smoke-free housing units without being sued," he said. "We're trying to make the law a little more clear, a little more explicit."

The bill, scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, would allow landlords to ban smoking on all or a portion of their property, including in any building on the site.

Tenants could continue to smoke inside their homes until their pre-smoking ban rental agreements expired. A violation would be considered a breach of the agreement and could lead to eviction.

The bill includes several findings about the health effects of tobacco use, including the fact that an estimated 38,000 Americans die each year because of breathing second-hand smoke.

"We need to recognize the rights of nonsmokers," said Padilla, a Los Angeles Democrat. "We share the same walls, the same ventilation units."

Debra Carlton, a spokeswoman for the California Apartment Association, a landlords' group that supports the bill, says apartment owners can face lawsuits no matter which way they go on the smoking issue.

"Smoking has become a source of conflict between smokers and nonsmokers," she said. "Some owners who have set nonsmoking standards are challenged by smokers who claim they have a right to smoke on their own property.

"At the same time, owners who don't set nonsmoking standards have been sued by tenants."

Padilla's bill takes a middle-of-the-road approach that some health groups think doesn't go far enough. Some advocates for the poor, however, think it goes too far.

It could result in month-to-month renters, many of whom are poor, having as little as 60 days to quit smoking or find new places to live, said Cindi Alvidrez, a legislative assistant with the Western Center on Law and Poverty, which lobbies on behalf of the poor.

"What we don't want to see happen is having low-income families evicted and losing their rent-control protections when other means to prevent or quit smoking haven't been addressed," she said.

Bill Phelps, a spokesman for the Altria Group, owner of Philip Morris USA, said the nation's largest tobacco company has not taken a position on the bill.

California already bans smoking in enclosed workplaces, including restaurants and bars, and near the entrances to state buildings and around children's playgrounds.

A bill signed last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bars smoking in motor vehicles carrying children.

Here are some of the other bills on lawmakers' agendas this week:

MEDICAL MARIJUANA - A bill by Assemblywoman Lori Saldana, D-San Diego, would prohibit state and local law enforcement officers from participating in federal arrests and prosecutions of medical marijuana providers and users. Joe Kocurek, a Saldana spokesman, said the bill is an attempt to make "explicit that which we think was implicit in Proposition 215," the 1996 ballot measure that allows use of marijuana for medical purposes under California law. Saldana's legislation is on the Assembly Public Safety Committee agenda on Tuesday.

INDIAN GAMBLING - A measure by Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, would prohibit the governor from negotiating gambling deals with Indian tribes that are not federally recognized and don't have trust lands on which the casinos would be located. The measure, which is on the Senate Appropriations Committee's agenda on Monday, is an attempt to prevent landless tribes and their financial partners from trying to locate casinos in controversial but potentially lucrative locations.

COSMETIC SURGERY - Patients would have to pass physical examinations before having elective cosmetic surgery under legislation by Assemblywoman Wilmer Carter, D-Rialto. The bill is scheduled to be considered Tuesday by the Assembly Health Committee. It was suggested by a niece of Donda West, the mother of rapper Kanye West. Donda West died last November, a day after having breast reduction, tummy tuck and liposuction procedures. An autopsy concluded she probably died of heart disease and complications stemming from the surgery.

DANGEROUS TOYS - A bill by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, would ban the manufacturing, sale or distribution of toys or child-care products for use by children under the age of 3 if they contain Bisphenol-A, a chemical used in plastics. Studies have found that Bisphenol-A disrupts hormones, produces hyperactivity, faster growth among girls and earlier onset of puberty, according to a Senate analysis of Migden's bill. The measure, which also would ban toys or child-care products for children under age 12 if they contain lead, is on the Senate Health Committee's agenda on Wednesday. A bill by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, that would impose the same ban on toys and child-care products containing lead is before the Assembly Health Committee on Tuesday.

LEAD LIPSTICK - Another Migden bill would ban sales of lipstick that contains lead. A study released in October by a group called the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics found that more than half of the 33 brand-name lipsticks made in the United States contained detectible amounts of lead. The bill is on the Senate Appropriations Committee agenda on Monday.

SYNTHETIC TURF - Another measure before the Appropriations Committee on Monday would require the Integrated Waste Management Board, the Department of Public Health and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to prepare a report on the environmental and public health effects of synthetic and natural turf. The bill's author, Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, says synthetic turf has become increasingly popular for sports fields, as cover around public buildings and roadways and as replacements for lawns, but it can also serve as a breeding ground for bacteria.

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On the Net: http://www.assembly.ca.gov and http://www.senate.ca.gov

Comments from Examiner Readers

12:25 PM MST on Sun., Apr. 6, 2008 re: "Calif. bill would require sick leave for workers"

sickofrisco said:
Once workers find out that they can get nine days of free pay each year for being sick, how soon will the average number of sick days a year per employee jump from its present number to 9? Once again, another attempt by politicians to give out "freebies" paid out of somebody else's pocket?

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