Smokers beware!
Pasadena City Council throws down on lighting up
By André Coleman 10/23/2008
Pasadena City Councilwoman Margaret McAustin couldn’t decide how to vote on a tough new law prohibiting people from smoking in service lines, outdoor shopping and dining areas and near public entrances.
“It felt like it was overregulation,” McAustin said. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be in a city where someone would call the cops for someone smoking a cigarette.”
Then McAustin, who does not smoke, realized that the new law would make lighting up even tougher at events like the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl college football game on New Year’s Day. So on Monday McAustin voted with five of her colleagues and helped unanimously pass the new ordinance, which goes into effect Nov. 19 and makes Pasadena one of dozens of cities around California to consider more restrictions against smoking in public, among them Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, Calabasas and Burbank. Glendale officials are also now considering imposing similar limits on where people can smoke.
“It’s important for the city to protect people attending festivals in places like Centennial Square and the Rose Parade,” McAustin observed prior to Monday’s council meeting, where 18 people spoke in support of the ordinance.
Over the next month, city officials will conduct an educational campaign to let people know about some of the new restrictions and possible penalties involved for those who step out of line.
Like several other cities, the Pasadena law bans smoking in service lines, at outdoor malls and in and around open dining areas. It also outlaws smoking 20 feet from public entrances to buildings. That would mean people attending the Rose Parade would have to smoke in the street if they felt the urge to light up a cigarette. Prohibitions at the Rose Bowl are already pretty strict, with only one area on the stadium concourse currently available for smokers.
Things could get pricey for smokers who persist, with first-time violators facing fines of $100, then $200 for a second violation and $500 for each subsequent offense.
The ordinance was proposed in May on the heels of a public opinion poll conducted by the city that showed three-quarters of the 900 people surveyed supported a policy to prohibit smoking in all public places. Another 82 percent said they would support a policy prohibiting smoking in customer service waiting lines. The city already bans smoking in parks.
Action on the ordinance was delayed so that members of the business community could express their concerns. But no one voiced an objection to the proposal at Monday’s council meeting.
Although the city has taken steps to keep tobacco away from minors, it has lagged behind other communities in enacting policies aimed at protecting people from secondhand smoke. The Centers for Disease Control last year gave the city of Pasadena a grade of C, based on efforts to protect citizens from secondhand smoke in parks, recreational spaces, entryways and service lines, according to a report prepared for the council’s Public Safety Committee.
“I think [the new law] will improve the grade. We now have a responsibility to educate,” said Mayor Bill Bogaard. “I am confident the Health Department will work hard on informing the public and enforcing the new rules. We haven’t found much enforcement to be necessary with the previous smoking rules. When people understand the rules, they will comply.”
Although no one was against it publicly, the ordinance did have some opposition. Prior to Monday’s meeting, the City Manager’s Office received 21 emails — one from as far away as New Jersey — from people opposed to the new restrictions.
“This ban is just another do-gooder gone wrong,” wrote Pasadena resident Paul Cummings. “There is no data that suggests that a draconian ban of which is now being proposed in the city of Pasadena will benefit anyone. In fact, let us please go a step further and outlaw flatulence and bad breath also. … Pull your head out and be a public servant. Are there not other important issues to focus our attention upon? Please, let’s start [with] the homeless. The bandits masquerading as parking meters or the parking Gestapo. What about a no-kill [animal] shelter? Does the city of Pasadena need another vehicle to extort money from its citizens? Come on, give me a break.”
In another email, a Long Beach resident threatened to stay away from Pasadena if the ordinance passed.
“Please be advised that since Beverly Hills has passed a smoking ban, my wife and I have not visited various restaurants at least half a dozen times because I cannot smoke a cigar in the indoor patio,” wrote Barry J. Klazura. “This used to be a regular treat for us, but obviously the city does not need my entertainment dollars so that is fine with us.”
Bogaard said he respects concerns about “excessive government activity,” but “I think the vast majority will respect and comply with these new rules. Last night’s testimony was uniformly positive about the new rules.”
As of June, 46 cities had enacted policies prohibiting smoking in entryways, and 29 had adopted laws banning smoking in public service lines, as well as at bus stops and taxi shelters.
Pasadena’s ordinance is perhaps most comparable to laws in Baldwin Park and Santa Monica, where in 2006 the City Council approved an ordinance banning outdoor smoking at restaurants and service areas. That council added public parks, beaches, public waiting areas and the Santa Monica Pier to the list of places where people could no longer smoke.
At that time, Santa Monica Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky said evidence indicated that smoking bans tended to increase business, not lessen it, as critics have contended.
In 2006, the California Air Resources Board official recognized secondhand smoke as a toxic air pollutant on a par with diesel exhaust, arsenic and benzene, making California the only state to make such a determination. A report by the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment states that secondhand smoke is responsible for 4,000 deaths a year due to lung cancer and heart disease.
Like Bogaard, McAustin is hoping smokers have enough respect for the law and courtesy for their fellow citizens to not smoke in public places.
“As far as the individual smoker who might be standing in line at an ATM and bothered by someone’s smoke, I think they should ask the person to stop,” McAustin said. “I don’t think the smoker should get a ticket. Frankly, we don’t have the resources for that type of campaign.”
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I am from the midwest. It makes us laugh with hilarity at California being trend setters. We keep waiting for you to slide into the ocean. I am appalled at the political correctness that so many of you adhere to. Talk about terrorists! Stop spreading your stupidity and and willingness to go along with whatever comes your way. Wake up to the truth.
Anti's beware! Four groups have filed a complaint with the Office of Research and Integrity to expose the untruths and misconduct in the Surgeon General's 2006 report on second hand smoke among other issues.
http://tinyurl.com/5l7t4b