SM PIER — Local and state officials gathered here Friday in support of a new bill that proposes banning smoking on every public beach in California.
Riding the crest of a recent wave of local anti-smoking laws passed as far away as Australia, Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), the bill’s author, said the sheer scope of the statewide ban would make California a trendsetter.
“It’s a sad fact that too many careless smokers use our beaches as their ash-trays,” said Koretz, adding cigarette butts take 25 years to decompose. “Smokers on the beach just don’t think ahead to the consequences of their actions.”
Health concerns also were cited by backers of the law, who said families shouldn’t be forced to move their beach blankets to avoid second-hand smoke.
Laws recently were passed outlawing smoking on city beaches in Santa Monica, Malibu and Los Angeles. Similar laws exist for some local beaches in such locales as New Jersey, the United Kingdom and Australia — and even on some lake shores in Minnesota.
Organizers said the first beach smoking ban in the United States was passed 10 years ago to protect a natural preserve on a beach in Hawaii.
Koretz was joined at the morning press conference by elected leaders from Santa Monica, Malibu and Los Angeles, and activists from a variety of anti-smoking groups and the Surfrider Foundation. The speakers were flanked by a pair of tall
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 19, 2004. Read the original PDF.