E. Harlem tries volunteer no-smoking rule

Eddie Hernandez jumped right on board when a volunteer outdoor no-smoking rule went into effect about a month ago in his East Harlem neighborhood.

Hernandez, 38, said he was happy to post one of the NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City's signs in his storefront window. About the size of a stop sign, it reads: "No Smoking Supporters of the 110th St. Smoke-Free Block."

"I have asthma and I don't smoke," said Hernandez, who has owned the liquor store for 10 years, and has always had a no-smoking sign -- about 8-by-10 inches -- on his inside front door looking out.

"I've had that [smaller] sign for years and people don't care," he said. "They still come in smoking."

Hernandez said that unfortunately neither sign has deterred smokers.

"The only way to get people to not smoke is to give them a ticket," he said.

For the first time, the NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City has partnered with the East Harlem Asthma Center to help promote a no-smoking rule on 110th Street. .

The coalition has put up no-smoking signs in front of the asthma center and asked store owners, the U.S. Post office next door, and the library across the street to ask their employees and customers not to smoke on 110th Street.

Scott Levine, 35, of Forest Hills, was in the neighborhood visiting a friend recently, and smoked as he walked along 110th Street past the asthma center.

Levine, who said he was unaware of the rule, said the no-smoking policy on the block "is ridiculous. Any significant amount of smoke by nature dissipates quickly."

He said his fiancée hates his smoking habit of 25 years, and admits to have given up his attempts to quit.

"I've tried to quit but it's a tough one," Levine said. "The withdrawal symptoms are unbearable. I get irritable and I get the shakes."

The block was targeted because East Harlem has one of the highest asthma rates in the city, said Sheelah Feinberg, director of the NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City, a nonprofit funded by the city and state health departments and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

One in four children who live in East Harlem have asthma -- attributable to cigarette smoke in the household and truck traffic density in the neighborhood, she said.

"I feel that everyone has the right to breathe clean air," Feinberg said. "The science is out there. The U.S. surgeon general said there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke whether it's indoors or outdoors."

At the smoke-free park across the street from the asthma center, "El Catano Gardens," the rule is a breath of fresh air for William Ortiz, 55, who has lived on the street for decades.

"I don't smoke and I never have," said Ortiz, who is a plumber. "When I see someone smoking in front of me I cross the street. It makes me cough."