L.A. Council Panel Seeks Wider Curbs on Smoking

A City Council committee Tuesday approved an anti-smoking package aimed at imposing restrictions in a number of public places such as restaurants, government buildings, sporting arenas, transportation facilities and schools.

The measure by City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores would go well beyond the city’s last anti-smoking law, which went into effect in December, 1984, and requires companies with five or more employers to provide a smoking-free area for nonsmokers.

But City Councilmen Ernani Bernardi, chairman of the Public Health, Human Resources and Senior Citizens Committee, which approved the Flores package, and Marvin Braude, author of the 1984 law, promised to fight for much more restrictive language that would place Los Angeles at the forefront of cities which have passed tough anti-smoking ordinances.

A spokesman for the city clerk’s office said it could be several weeks before the controversial measure would be ready for full council debate.

Essentially, Bernardi will produce a minority report aimed at banning smoking in all indoor commercial and government areas open to the public.

Observing that the committee room was smoke-free, Bernardi, a nonsmoker, said “a miracle has happened in this country. Five or 10 years ago, this room would be filled with smoke. So let’s take this last step and get this over with.”

Flores, a member of the panel and also a nonsmoker, would take a more moderate approach. In the case of Los Angeles restaurants, for example, she would require that a sign be posted in an “obvious” place “to advise customers whether the restaurant has a no-smoking section.” Braude, a former two-pack-a-day smoker who quit the habit, would require that “a mininum of 50% of all seating” be designated for nonsmokers. His tougher anti-smoking package was expected to be considered separately by the council.

Bernardi’s minority report, yet another package to be considered by the council, was expected to prohibit smoking altogether in all public places. Flores said afterward that her approach was “a response” to Braude’s, which she called “too intrusive into people’s private lives.”

The Flores measure did adopt some language from the Braude blueprint, however, and would prohibit smoking in all polling places, elementary and secondary schools and child-care facilities.

Both proposals would prohibit smoking by people waiting in line for service in government buildings.

Both the Flores and Braude versions would ban smoking in retail stores unless they sell tobacco products.