Contra Costa to Develop Plan to Limit Outdoor Smoking in Public Places

By Rebecca Rosen Lum, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif., Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Dec. 21–The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors has agreed to expand limits on secondhand smoke — but the details still need to be worked out.

Supervisor Mark DeSaulnier of Concord said the increased incidence of cancer, heart disease and respiratory aliments prompted him to propose banning smoking in outdoor areas, including picnic grounds and restaurant patios, and multiunit housing complexes.

Not everyone was convinced that a new ordinance would make a difference.

“This is what I call sound-bite legislation,” said Kris Hunt, executive director of the Contra Costa Taxpayers Association. “The question is, who is going to enforce it? If there is no enforcement, what is the point of it?”

Tuesday’s vote instructs the health department to develop options for an ordinance, to be presented to the board’s Family and Human Service Committee within 90 days.

The measure, which passed unanimously, would apply only to county parks and buildings, and businesses in unincorporated parts of Contra Costa.

The county spends $228 million annually treating illnesses linked to smoking, according to county Health Services.

“We get more and more complaints,” said Denice Dennis, executive director of the Contra Costa Health Services’ Tobacco Prevention Project. “Outside dining areas have kind of turned into the smoking section. And we hear from people in apartment buildings about smokers in the unit above or below.”

Over the next 90 days, the Tobacco Prevention Project will examine models from across the state with an eye to clearing the air in public parks and on trails, medical campuses, and fairgrounds and pavilions where the public gathers for events or concerts. The examples are out there: Berkeley, Davis, Oakland and Santa Barbara prohibit smoking at the entrances to office buildings and other work sites, for instance.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated secondhand smoke a known human carcinogen, and a 2005 state study found stronger links between tobacco smoke exposure and heart disease, respiratory ailments and cancer including breast cancer in women of childbearing age who do not smoke.

Since 1988, when California voters elected to levy a 25-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes, smoking in Contra Costa County has plunged by 60 percent, Dennis said. The state is second only to Utah in its low rate of smoking.

Rebecca Rosen Lum covers county government. Reach her at 925-977-8506 or rrosenlum@cctimes.com.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

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