Non-smokers may be getting more relief from second hand smoke in the future.

The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii wants apartment and condo buildings to be smoke-free and they brought an expert to town to help.

Sixteen percent of hawaii's apartments and condominiums already have smoking bans in place - including in individual units and on lanais. But that leaves 84 percent that do allow smoking for a majority of the population that is non-smoking. Jim Bergman sees that as an opportunity.

"And that is most apartment buildings and condos still don't have a no-smoking policy. So you've got a market demand that sits there that is huge but you've got the marketplace lagging behind it," says Jim Bergman, Non-Smoking advocate.

Bergman is an attorney who has helped convert apartments and condos all over the country to non-smoking buildings. The savings for owners and managers can be remarkable.

"The difference in turnover cost - from turning over a unit that has had a smoker in it versus a non-smoker - anywhere from 500 dollars to eight thousand. my bet is here in hawaii that eight thousand figure is a low number," says Bergman.

Fire is always a potential hazard in a smoker's apartment - Bergman related this story told to him by a building owner.

"Fire started in one unit, fire went into the adjoining unit because it had time - so he said I had two units that had fire damage from that. But he said, I had 19 other units that had water or smoke damage," says Bergman.

Without a non-smoking policy in place, Bergman says, apartment and condo managers will receive an endless round of complaints.

"The problem with second hand smoke complaints is - what you want is a complaint that you can resolve, be done with, everyone's happy. cool. second hand smoke complaints don't resolve that way," says Bergman.

Landlords and condo managers have expressed concern about enforcing a smoke-free policy. Bergman said theoretically, enforcement might be a problem.

"In reality, we're just not seeing it that way. And it doesn't matter whether it's market rate, affordable, public housing - it doesn't seem to matter anywhere. and i think it's basically that we've got a law-abiding society," says Bergman.