Smoking Law Queries Flood City Attorney

A pile of pink message slips greeted law clerk Maria Brimsey when she arrived at the Los Angeles city attorney’s office at 8:30 a.m. today, the first workday since the city’s tough new anti-smoking ordinance went into effect.

The city attorney’s 485-2108 hot line for information on the two-day-old law had actually been ringing off the hook since 7 a.m., and Brimsey was the only one assigned to handle all the questions.

By mid-morning, the 26-year-old clerk, a nonsmoker herself, had fielded 75 calls, most from employers checking on whether their new smoking policies, now required to be put in writing, complied with the ordinance.

“Smoking is prohibited in restrooms, elevators, medical facilities,” Brimsey intoned, no longer reading from a copy of the law in front of her. “I’ve repeated it so many times I know it by heart.”

Among the callers was a typist whose employer had prohibited all smoking in the work area, which is an option under the new law.

“She was very angry,” Brimsey said. “She complained she could smoke only if she went outside. But if she went outside too often he’d say she wasn’t working.”