The smoke-obsessed board of an Upper West Side co-op seems to be working from an incorrect premise.

Speaking of the board president, Mr. Haberman states, "Smoke, he explained, can drift into other apartments through ventilation systems." That would not be the case unless that building has been illegally designed in fundamental ways, which is extremely unlikely.

The building regulations here, and in every other city I know, require apartment ventilating systems to only extract and to protect against air (or smoke or fire) from passing from one apartment to another. If you can smell smoke from a neighbor's apartment, that building has a serious code violation.