Smoking Law Strikes Few Sparks in Offices

On the 17th floor of Warner Center Complex 1 in Woodland Hills, the ashtrays have given way to small bowls of candy.

On the seventh floor, a secretary notes an absence of smoke in the bathrooms.

On the 11th floor, a nonsmoker is thinking of moving to another desk, while a three-pack-a-day man swears he will never relent.

In one of the Valley’s most conspicuous office buildings, these were some of the reactions to Los Angeles Municipal Code Section 41.50, an ordinance more widely known as “the anti-smoking law.”

Adopted Monday with a maximum of fanfare, the ordinance prohibits smoking in elevators, bathrooms and medical facilities, and in two-thirds of all lounges, lunchrooms and cafeterias. It also requires businesses with five or more employees to provide “to the maximum extent possible” a smoke-free area for those who don’t light up.

Smooth Adjustment

At Warner Center Complex 1, workers appear to have weathered the ordinance’s first week relatively smoothly.

Based on interviews at half a dozen firms in the building, no one at the complex has found it necessary to call the city attorney’s office and complain about an employer. Although calls from throughout Los Angeles to the city attorney’s hot line (213-485-2108) were said to be running high throughout the week, a spokesman for that office said Friday that most callers wanted information, not legal action.

Of the approximately 3,500 calls received, only 16 are under review by the city attorney, spokesman Ted Goldstein said. No decisions have been made on how to resolve them, he said.

Similarly, Los Angeles police spokesmen, by the end of the workweek, said they had received no direct complaints about individual smokers. Any received will be turned over to the city attorney’s office for disposition in court.

Talk About Law

Still, the law has caused some talk at the 20-story complex, which houses 30 white-collar businesses of various sizes.

In the Blue Cross of California suite, for instance, advertising manager Charles Yates is no longer allowed to smoke in his office on the 17th floor. Yates, who favors Tiparillos, said he arrived at work Monday to find a bowl of gum and lollipops where his ashtray used to be, along with a note from the company’s “Human Services” staff.

“It thanked me for complying with the new rules,” said Yates, who explained that Blue Cross had responded to the passage of the law by prohibiting smoking competely on the 17th and 15th floors.

The company, which occupies three floors in the building, had announced in a memo two weeks ago that Blue Cross smokers would henceforth be confined to a lounge on the 16th floor.

Not Bothered

Although the Blue Cross policy went beyond the requirements of the new law, Yates said he wasn’t bothered by having to make occasional trips downstairs before lighting up. After all, he noted, Blue Cross is a health care company, with roughly 15 smokers among the 150 employees housed at the Warner Center building.

“It’s not the kind of thing that makes you rattle your cage,” he said.

“The candy was a nice way of saying to smokers ‘Hey--We know where you are,’ ” he said.

At other businesses, there was more talk and less action. In the 11th-floor offices of the Shearson-American Express brokerage firm, manager Lloyd Isaacs said no changes were made in response to the law, since most of the smokers in the office already sat “in the back.” And because most of Shearson’s brokers have separate offices, there was little need to set up a special no-smoking section.

Law ‘Irritating’

This news was a relief for financial consultant Shane Mathe, who found the new law “irritating,” to say the least.

“I consider myself a courteous person,” said Mathe, who smokes three packs a day. “There are some things that are important in this world, and this isn’t one of them.”

To Mathe, the new law seemed trivial and largely useless. For instance, he said, it would be difficult to imagine an arrest for smoking in a bathroom.

“I mean what are they going to do,” he said, “kick open the stall and yell, ‘Go ahead, make my day’?”

But Mathe’s views were not shared by co-worker Bill Brainard, who gave up smoking last week. Brainard, who sits in the back, said he is thinking of moving to another desk soon to escape a nearby offender.

“My attitude right now is, I’m not going to sit next to a smoker,” he said.

“Before the law I could complain, but it wouldn’t make any difference. Now I can be obnoxious. . . . I’d like to see them ban it completely indoors,” he said.

At some companies, the response was less direct. At the offices of the Aetna Life Insurance Co. on the seventh and eighth floors, a secretary said she had noticed a marked decrease in visits to the bathroom, since smoking in bathrooms is officially illegal.

In the fourth-floor offices of the Mission Insurance Co., administrative assistant Lisa Sparrow said the law had produced some interesting side effects. Although there hadn’t been any changes made since the new law took effect, the ordinance had apparently inspired a secretary to entrust her supply of cigarettes to a co-worker, in hopes of cutting her intake to three cigarettes a day. “I thought that was cute,” said Sparrow, who added there were about 100 smokers among the 140 Mission Insurance employees.

Throughout the building, speculation on the long-term effects of the law varied. Lucille Holmes, the Aetna receptionist, said it was not likely to cut smoking, since smokers tend to be “tricky people” and would figure out ways around the rules. George Miro, a Blue Cross employee, said the law would probably cut his cigarette intake, since he could only manage “three or four short trips” to the smoking lounge each day. A vice president at the Health Net health care company on the 20th floor noted that the since the law had been passed, a cafeteria at the bottom of the building had become into a “smoke-filled cave.”

And Kathy Russell, the building manager, said she hoped the law would help discourage the lone smoker in the offices of the Voit Co. on the third floor.

“But I doubt it,” she said. “Some people just never give up. She’ll probably be at it till doomsday.”