Smoking Law Proposed for Ventura County

A coalition of Ventura County health agencies, borrowing from a strategy successful in other parts of California, has proposed that lawmakers in the county’s 10 cities and the Board of Supervisors adopt ordinances regulating where smokers can light up.

But the suggested law drafted by the newly formed Smoking Action Coalition got a lukewarm reception from officials in several eastern Ventura County cities, who said efforts to accommodate both smokers and nonsmokers voluntarily appear to be working without government intervention.

The coalition, consisting of members of local chapters of the American Lung Assn., the American Heart Assn., the American Cancer Society and the Ventura County Medical Society, proposed the controls at a press conference Tuesday morning at the County Government Center in Ventura.

Laws in 98 Cities

So far, 98 California cities have passed smoking regulations, according to Americans for Nonsmokers Rights, a group that lobbies for such laws. Los Angeles in 1984 required businesses to come up with smoking policies, extending a city law that already prohibited smoking in supermarkets, elevators and public restrooms.

The are no such laws in any cities in Ventura County, although in Simi Valley it is unlawful to smoke in City Council chambers.

The Smoking Action Coalition wants to change that. Ventura attorney Frederick H. Bysshe, chairman of the coalition, said the draft ordinance, which has been sent to city councils in Ventura and the county supervisors, seeks to impose smoking restrictions in three areas.

Like the Los Angeles law, it would require businesses to devise a written smoking policy that sets out procedures for establishing smoke-free work areas, Bysshe said.

Restaurant Regulations

Also, owners of restaurants with more than about 40 seats would be required to set aside at least 50% of their dining area for nonsmoking customers. Finally, smoking would be banned or restricted in enclosed public places such as stores, meeting rooms, buses and medical facilities.

“We’re trying to strike a balance between the right of the smoker, and the right of the person who chooses not to smoke to breathe tobacco-free air,” he said.

Bysshe’s group is patterning its efforts after such campaigns as the one in Contra Costa County, in Northern California, where a coalition of health agencies got the county and its cities to adopt smoking restrictions.

Members of the Ventura coalition believe their campaign will be helped by last month’s report of the U. S. surgeon general about the hazards of breathing second-hand smoke.

Some city and county lawmakers were cool to the idea, saying there is no public outcry for such restrictions.

No Urgency Seen

“Pardon the pun, but I don’t think this is a real burning issue right now,” said Madge Schaefer, a recently elected Ventura County supervisor who said she is a former smoker.

In her nine years on the Thousand Oaks City Council before becoming a supervisor, there were only two requests from citizens for smoking restrictions, Schaefer said.

“That just tells me that smokers have become more courteous and are more aware of the fact that their habits infringe on others’ rights,” she said.

Camarillo Councilman F. B. Esty, a nonsmoker, said the proposed law will probably be considered by the city’s lawmakers but, “I don’t think there is any need for government intervention. What I’m observing is that less people are smoking. They are taking care of the problem on their own and I don’t see any particular need for such an ordinance.”

But in Simi Valley, Councilman Glen McAdoo, a smoker, said he welcomes regulations, as long as they are fair to both sides.

“I have a right to smoke myself to death, but I doubt that I have a right to expose others to it,” McAdoo said. “I would look favorably at this if it is written well.”