By Kevin Herrera

Daily Press Staff Writer

CITY HALL — Smoke ’em if you got ’em, because in a few weeks, the right to puff on a cigarette in public will be severely restricted.

Looking to extinguish the deadly effects of secondhand smoke, the City Council on Tuesday, by a 6-0 vote, gave initial approval to a sweeping smoking ban that would make it almost impossible for tobacco lovers to light up outside of their own homes and designated areas.

Once the ban goes into effect, smoking will be prohibited along the Third Street Promenade and at each of the farmers’ markets. Smoking will also be banned from all outdoor dining and service areas — bus stops, ATM lines, information kiosks, theater lines — and within 20 feet of any entrances or windows open to the public.

Smokers could soon find themselves at a loss as to where they are permitted to light up. Smoking is already prohibited inside all public buildings, at parks, at the beach and on portions of the Santa Monica Pier.

Those who violate the ban will be subject to a $250 fine. The law goes into effect 30 days after its passage, with the council expected to give the final thumbs-up at its next meeting, scheduled for Oct. 24.

As with Santa Monica’s previous smoking restrictions, the primary means of enforcement would be education, awareness and voluntary compliance, said Adam Radinsky, a city attorney with the Consumer Protection Unit who helped draft the ban.

“If necessary, and if a smoker refuses a request to stop smoking in a prohibited location, police officers may also give citations,” Radinsky said.

Tuesday’s vote comes on the heels of a recent report by the U.S. surgeon general that concluded there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke — the smoke individuals breathe when they are located in the same airspace as someone puffing on a cigarette, cigar or pipe filled with tobacco.

Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or work increase their risk of developing heart disease by 25 to 30 percent, and lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent, the report found.

Earlier this year, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) officially identified secondhand smoke as a “toxic air contaminant” that is responsible for more than 400 additional lung cancer deaths in the state each year.

Exposure to secondhand smoke is also responsible for about 31,000 episodes of children’s asthma, about 1,600 cases of low birth weight in newborns and more than 4,700 cases of pre-term delivery annually in the state, according to the ARB report.

An estimated 440,000 people die in the United States each year from tobacco-related diseases, making it the nation’s leading cause of preventable illness, according to the surgeon general’s report.

BUSINESS CONCERNS

The council’s preliminary approval of the ban was seen by advocates, including the American Cancer Society, as a major victory for public health in light of the fact that nearly half of all non-smoking Americans are still regularly exposed to secondhand smoke.

“You don’t have to be living with a smoker to be affected,” said Colleen Callahan, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association of California, who was one of 25 people who spoke before the council in favor of the ban. “Any exposure is harmful.”

Some business leaders, including the board of directors for the Bayside District Corp. — which helps City Hall manage and promote downtown — opposed the ban out of fear that it will adversely affect tourism.

“The first time a tourist is cited for smoking, we will not only alienate them, but those who accompany them as well,” said Kelley Wallace, co-owner of the Above The Fold Newstand on the Promenade and a member of the Bayside board. “This is going to drive away business.”

Bruce Cameron, a member of the Santa Monica Convention & Visitors Bureau board of directors, said a study conducted by the bureau found roughly 26 percent of tourists come from countries where smoking is prevalent.

“If you were to lose just 10 percent (of revenue) … bam, there goes your education fund,” Cameron said. “If you lose 20 percent, bam, there goes your education fund and your police overtime fund. To say there will be no economic impact is disingenuous.

“This is a case of Santa Monica being addicted to the perception that it is on the cutting edge,” said Cameron. “This can’t be done without more public input.”

One resident, James Jacobson, said the ban is an attack on civil liberties.

“Whenever I travel somewhere and people ask me where I’m from and I tell them, they say, ‘Oh, you mean the People’s Republic of Santa Monica, where no individual liberty goes untouched,’” Jacobson said. “I don’t have any objection to banning smoking in certain areas outside, but this goes too far.”

The claim that businesses would be hurt by the ban did not resonate with council members.

“We always hear about these fears of losing tourism. So what?” posed Councilman Herb Katz, a former smoker who quit 26 years ago. “What is the value of human life? Let’s quit being afraid of losing money. Let’s get with it and start saving lives.”

In Hawaii, where a statewide ban will go into effect in November, officials said they have received a positive response and have met with representatives from tourism agencies that do business with Japanese tourists, who said that foreign tourists are used to increasing smoking restrictions in the United States. The agencies reported that they did not foresee a negative impact from the new state law.

Radinsky said visitors to the promenade will still be able to smoke on every cross street — from Broadway to Wilshire Boulevard — places that are more than 20 feet from the nearest business entrance. Radinsky also said that businesses would not be held liable if their customers chose to break the law, unlike a statewide indoor-workplace law.

A GROWING TREND

Supporters of the ban, who were wearing large blue buttons stating their allegiance to non-smoking, packed the Council Chambers and cheered loudly when the votes were tallied. They included representatives from the Coalition for a Tobacco Free L.A. and Healthier Solutions, a Santa Monica-based group dedicated to a smoke-free society.

Council member Pam O’Connor, who cast the lone dissenting vote in July when the ban was first presented, was not present during Tuesday’s vote. In July, O’Connor said the ban was really an attempt to outlaw smoking in all public spaces because of the requirement that smokers stand 20 feet away from any public entrance or window.

On congested streets such as Pico, Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards and Montana Avenue, complying with the ban will be near impossible for smokers unless they stand practically in the middle of the street, O’Connor said at the time.

With Tuesday’s vote, Santa Monica, which was the first city to enforce a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in 1991, joined nine other California cities that ban smoking in outdoor dining areas, a measure polls indicate is supported by most Californians, according to a city staff report. An equal number of cities prohibit smoking near the entrances to buildings open to the public.

Officials with Calabasas, which recently adopted the most restrictive outdoor smoking law in the nation, essentially banning all smoking in public, reported that residents have responded well to the law. City officials there said they received a small amount of negative feedback following the adoption of the law; however, that stopped after about a month, according to a city staff report.

In Berkeley, which has had smoke-free outdoor dining since 1997 and was among the first two cities to implement a smoke-free radius outside businesses, officials reported that their program has been “hugely successful.” In nearly 10 years, Berkeley has had just two occasions on which follow-up visits were required at a business because of violations, a city staff report said.

Council members said they are aware of the fears that business owners have about losing customers, and have agreed to work with the business community in the coming months to help alleviate their concerns.

Mayor Bob Holbrook urged non-smokers to visit local restaurants and bars to help eradicate the perception that some restaurateurs may have about the ban being bad for business.

“If you really want to help, please come out to dinner,” Holbrook said.

Marlene Gomez, a member of Smoke-Free Air For Everyone (SAFE), said businesses are already losing money because non-smokers, like herself, refuse to frequent restaurants and other establishments that allow smoking.

“I’m proud that Santa Monica already bans smoking at parks,” Gomez said. “It shows my daughter that smoking is not good for her and is a habit she shouldn’t pick up.”