OGDENSBURG -- More than half of Ogdensburg Housing Authority tenants responding to a survey conducted by the anti-tobacco group Advancing Tobacco Free Communities of St. Lawrence, Jefferson and Lewis Counties (ATFC) say they want the property tobacco-free, the ATFC said.

The survey polled 250 people, of which 96 responded. Fifty three of those say they want the buildings to be tobacco-free, the ATFC said.

The ATFC says they define “tobacco” as cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos, pipes, hookahs, smokeless tobacco, electronic hookahs and electronic cigarettes.

The recent survey also concluded that 69 percent, or 66 respondents, do not smoke cigarettes. Sixty-four respondents, 67 percent, felt that breathing tobacco smoke from someone else’s cigarette is very harmful to their health, the ATFC said.

Three percent of respondents felt that secondhand smoke exposure wasn’t harmful to their health. Fifty-seven percent of those who responded to the survey reported being bothered by tobacco smoke drifting into their residential units from somewhere else in or around their building. An additional 33 percent reported tobacco smoke drifting into their apartment on a daily basis, the ATFC said.

As it stands, without a tobacco-free policy in place, 49 percent of residents who responded to the survey reported that they never allow smoking inside of their own residential units.

“Smoking in multi-unit housing increases the risk of fire and known health effects of secondhand smoke,” the ATFC statement said. “Tobacco-free policies help to mitigate the irritation and known health effects caused by secondhand smoke, maintenance, cleaning and redecorating cost of smoking, the increased risk of fire and the cost of fire insurance for a non-smoke-free building.”