No Lighter Fluid Ban in Works : Environment: County air quality officials will seek other methods of reducing pollution first.

While much of Southern California will soon be giving up the smoky American tradition of using lighter fluid to start the back-yard barbecue, Ventura County cooks can continue to light their fires any way they want.

At least as long as county officials continue to focus their attention on other air pollution sources.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District last week adopted the first ban in the nation on the sale of most lighter fluids and pre-soaked briquettes in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties starting in 1992.

But the top official at Ventura County’s Air Pollution Control District says there is little chance that anyone will start tinkering soon with county barbecuing practices.

The primary focus for the county now is reduction of emissions from large pollution sources like motor vehicles and power plants, rather than smaller sources like charcoal and lighter fluid, said Richard Baldwin, county air pollution control officer.

“That’s the kind of thing we will propose if we can’t find other solutions,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin did not rule out the possibility that Ventura County may also place solvent-based lighter fluids under closer scrutiny as other sources of air pollution are controlled or eliminated.

But he noted that South Coast district officials have studied the lighter fluid issue closely enough to be able to estimate that 2,700 gallons of lighter fluid are used in the four-county area every day, generating emissions equal to 34,000 cars or an oil refinery.

So far, Baldwin said, officials have not yet even studied how much lighter fluid is used in Ventura County or begun to consider how a similar ban might help clean up Ventura County air.

Nonetheless, Baldwin made it clear that he thinks lighter fluid is an inferior way of starting a back-yard barbecue, even if it remains legal here.

“I started using an electric starter 13 or 14 years ago because of the taste,” he said. “My most recent test of this was yesterday, when I barbecued ribs without lighter fluid and enjoyed the taste.”

A brief survey of county barbecuers Monday revealed, however, that there are some strong feelings on both sides of the question.

As he turned some tri-tip steaks on a grill at Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura, Ron Dawson of Oxnard, a computer scientist for the federal government, said he thinks the government should keep its regulatory mitts off his barbecue.

“You’re fooling with an American tradition that absolutely should not be tampered with,” Dawson said.

If such a measure were passed in Ventura County, Dawson said he may be forced to cross county lines looking for the lighter fluid or to search for contraband products.

“Can you imagine a black market for charcoal in mom-and-pop stores?” he asked.

Among county officials, there was a little more readiness to consider other barbecue options.

Robert Braitman, executive director of the Local Agency Formation Commission and an outdoor chef of some repute in county government circles, said he often uses lighter fluid on his custom-made barbecue.

However, he said, he knows several techniques, because he was trained by the barbecuers of Santa Maria and Lompoc, where barbecue is a way of life.

He sometimes substitutes oak for coals and lights the fire with paper and twigs, Braitman said. Or he fills hollowed-out tin cans with briquettes, lights them with just a tiny bit of lighter fluid that newspaper could replace and fans the flames with a blow-dryer.

“I am ready to cook in 15 minutes when I use that method,” he said.

One Ventura County supporter of the ban on lighter fluid is environmental activist Russ Baggerly.

Before he became a leader in the environmental movement, Baggerly said, he used lighter fluid to start back-yard barbecues.

He rarely has time for that activity anymore, Baggerly said. But if he ever again gets time to barbecue, Baggerly said he’ll buy an electric fire starter or a gas barbecue.

“It’s cleaner fuel, and you get the same effect from gas as charcoal but without a mess,” he said.