Program will promote smoke-free restaurants
MAIN STREET — A movement to snuff out smoking in Santa Monica outdoor dining areas has ignited.
The “Fresh Air Dining Program” was officially launched this week and encourages area restaurants to be smoke-free on their outdoor patios.
Thirteen restaurants in Santa Monica have signed on to the voluntary program, which forbids anyone from lighting up when dining al fresco.
“We are honoring restaurants for taking a leadership position,” said Robert Berger, the project director of the program. Berger and about a half-dozen speakers announced the launch of the program at Urth Caffé on Main Street, which is a smoke-free environment.
Berger has been at the forefront of previous successful efforts to ban smoking from public areas in Santa Monica.
The City Council in 2003 passed a law banning smoking from the city’s 15 parks, and in 2004 the council passed a law banning smoking on the beach and in most places on the Santa Monica Pier. The ban also outlaws smoking at public waiting areas, such as bus stops. Once fines, penalties and other court costs are totaled, violators can expect to be out of pocket $750 or more, prosecutors said.
Shortly after Santa Monica passed its law, the city of Los Angeles banned smoking on four beaches — Cabrillo, Dockweiler, Will Rogers and Venice. And the city of Malibu also followed Santa Monica’s lead in 2004 by banning smoking on its beaches.
“Robert has been the linchpin of this movement,” said City Councilman Richard Bloom, who has said in the past that one of his top priorities as an elected official is public health. “It sends a message that smoking is dangerous... when we do things together, we achieve great things.”
Officials said there are no current plans to force businesses to become smoke-free.
“I’m very proud Santa Monica has been on the forefront in public health and the environment,” said City Councilman Kevin McKeown. “Today is a turning point... until today, government has had to intervene on public health.
“The beauty is that we’ve turned the corner, and I think this (voluntary program) will spread widely,” McKeown said.
Berger hopes more restaurants buy into the program and a new law won’t be necessary.
“We are conscious of the business community and involving them,” he said. “When the time comes when it is discussed as a policy, it sets the stage.”
Louise Rishoff, who represents 41st District Assemblymember Fran Pavley, commended the group for taking a lead role in promoting smoke-free dining establishments.
“Where else but Santa Monica to launch something like this?” she said, adding a bill is currently being considered that would add a 10 cent per pack tax on cigarette manufacturers to fund antismoking education and outreach.
Officials are concerned that secondhand smoke will inadvertently kill more people if proper measures are not taken. Recent studies suggest second-hand smoke contains more chemicals that are suspected carcinogens than previously believed.
Second-hand smoke is the third leading cause of preventable death, and its toxic, particulate concentrations are similar to what is dispersed from the exhaust of diesel buses, Berger said.
Urth Caffé owner Sal Calderon said a bad dining experience in Beverly Hills with his family prompted him to make his restaurants smoke-free.
“It hasn’t hurt business, it’s helped business,” he said. “There is no sense in dining al fresco if you can’t breath fresh air.”
California is at the forefront of antismoking legislation. Perhaps the fiercest bans exist in Davis, Berkeley, Palo Alto and San Ramon, where smoking is illegal within 20 feet of any smoke-free area.
Outdoor dining areas are smoke-free — by law — in Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, San Ramon, Laguna Hills, Los Gatos and Dublin. Smoking is also prohibited in non-public waiting areas — such as ATM and movie theater lines — in Davis, Palo Alto, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Goleta, Carpinteria, Buellton and Dublin. Davis and Berkeley have upped to 75 percent the ratio of rooms that must be set aside as smoke-free in every hotel. State law requires 35 percent, officials said.
Berger said a 2004 survey shows 88 percent of diners supported smoke-free dining.
He also said 84 percent of adults in Los Angeles County don’t smoke and prefer dining outdoors without subjecting themselves to second-hand smoke.
“They have a right to enjoy outdoor dining without smoke,” Berger said.
Restaurants that participate in the program will be rewarded with public recognition and free marketing. The program will actively market their businesses with window certificates promoting that it is a smoke-free environment, as well as direct e-mail to area diners and newspaper advertising, to name a few benefits.
The program was developed in partnership with the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society and the Los Angeles County Medical Association.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 29, 2005. Read the original PDF.