County’s Anti-Smoking Law Still Clouded by Conflict

Last spring the Orange County Board of Supervisors approved an ordinance requiring smoking rules for private businesses, capping years of controversy.

Now, eight months after the ordinance has gone into effect, it is getting conflicting reviews from county officials on the one hand, and from an ardent anti-smoking activist on the other.

Molly Brenner, supervisor of county’s smoking risk reduction program, and Shirley Jandron, coordinator of no-smoking programs, say that as a result of the ordinance, more companies than expected have set up smoking guidelines.

However, Jules Kerker, an anti-smoking activist, says the ordinance has failed because it requires less stringent anti-smoking controls than the county government imposes on itself.

“It’s very ineffective, inefficient and wishy-washy,” said Kerker, a Westminster insurance broker. He said the ordinance is an expanded version of earlier law that had, since 1975, required some kind of smoking rules in buildings owned or leased by the county.

Kerker contends that businesses in unincorporated areas, the only ones over which the county has direct control, should be subject to the same rules applied in county-owned or leased buildings--where almost no smoking is allowed.

In private businesses, Kerker says, an employer can get away with as little as separating smokers from nonsmokers with a four- or five-foot high portable wall if nonsmokers don’t mind.

“The county has allowed the private sector to be where (the county) was in 1975,” Kerker said. “It failed to pass on the valuable experience it gained.

“This is not a situation where you can say a little bit of poison is OK. The bottom line is that breathing and smoking in the same indoor airspace are incompatible activities.”

Although the county refined and strengthened smoking rules for its offices over the last decade, Jandron disagrees with Kerker.

She contends that most businesses, once they have been apprised of the county’s ordinance, establish rules that amount to an outright ban on smoking in their domains.

“My sense is that I’m finding more and more businesses are saying “no smoking” altogether,” said Jandron, who operates the (714) 834-5512 smoking hot line for the county and who distributes pamphlets to businesses explaining the county’s requirements. “You can’t just go into a private business and say they can’t have smoking at all.”

Brenner said the county prefers to approach its enforcement of the ordinance an educational way, rather than “with a big stick.”

Under the revised ordinance that was approved in April, 1987, and went into effect Nov. 1 of that year, businesses in unincorporated areas with more than 10 employees are required to “develop and maintain” a written no-smoking policy that provides for no-smoking areas.

Smoking is banned in all elevators, restrooms, hallways, conference rooms, classrooms, auditoriums, meeting rooms and medical facilities.

But it is allowed in private, enclosed offices, shared work areas if nonsmokers agree and in 50% of a cafeteria, lunch rooms or employee lounge.

By contrast, rules for county offices forbid smoking in all buildings leased or owned by the county except in designated areas. In effect, very few areas are designated for smoking.

Despite less stringent restrictions, Jandron said, private employers who contact her as a result of an employee complaint or in response to a brochure the county sent to 3,000 businesses last year, are amenable to setting up programs that are more strict than required of them.

Of about 400 calls received by the county’s smoking hot line since June, 1987, Jandron said, about 226 were from residents or cities that may or may not have smoking ordinances, 149 were from unincorporated areas and 18 were from health inspectors complaining that restaurants did not have smoking rules clearly posted.

She did not have a breakdown of the calls received since Nov. 1.

Of the calls from unincorporated areas, she said, only a minimal number were from employees complaining about employer violations of county rules.

Lucian Truhill president and chief executive officer of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, which says businesses should voluntarily develop their own rules, said no businesses have complained to him about the ordinance.