County OKs Cigarette Sales Ban

Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to ban the sale of cigarettes in all county-owned buildings, which includes about 40 privately operated shops and restaurants.

The shops and restaurants will not be affected, however, until their current leases expire, the earliest being in about two years. The restaurants include one at the airport and several in Dana Point Harbor.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, a reformed smoker who pursued the ban, said it is only a clarification of a smoking ordinance that the supervisors passed last year.

Riley said the ordinance was intended to ban the smoking and sale of cigarettes in county buildings. The wording of the ordinance was vague, however, and the county counsel ruled that it did not necessarily ban sales, only the smoking of cigarettes.

In a 4-1 vote, the board extended the ordinance to include a ban on the sales of cigarettes.

Board Chairman Harriett M. Wieder, who requested the county counsel review, opposed the ban on selling cigarettes. She said she understood the ordinance to apply only to the smoking of cigarettes.