NEWPORT BEACH : City Hall’s Smoking Ban to Begin Jan. 1

Janice Manning doesn’t mind that she will be forced outdoors come Jan. 1 if she dares to light up.

She’s a smoker, who, along with the handful of other city employees who smoke, will soon be forbidden to fill City Hall with the aroma of tobacco.

“It doesn’t really bother me,” said Manning, a systems analyst. “We smokers have gotten pretty philosophical about it. It’s just a matter of time that smoking will be banned everywhere. It is definitely a danger (to health). I can understand that.”

Reacting to complaints, City Manager Kevin J. Murphy announced recently that smoking in any city facility or vehicle will be prohibited.

He said he has received an increasing number of requests for such action from the nonsmoking majority of city employees.

Personnel Director Duane K. Munson said a petition signed by 66 people and “a groundswell of opposition” from employees concerned with the hazards of secondhand smoke prompted the ban.

There has been no opposition, Munson said. “This wasn’t done against smokers,” he said. “It was done because of the clear evidence that secondhand smoke is dangerous.”

Smoking is currently permitted in the employee lounges and in offices, as long as the smokers are at least 12 feet away from other employees.

That distance is not sufficient and was causing her to cough, said Shirley McFall, another systems analyst.

“Secondhand smoke is detrimental to people,” she said. “I’ve been complaining about that for 11 1/2 years.”

Describing the ban as “long overdue,” McFall added: “I don’t care if people smoke; I just don’t want to breathe it and be around it.”

City Hall now joins the Police and Fire departments in becoming smoke-free workplaces.

Law enforcement and firefighting personnel have not been allowed to smoke in stations and cars since 1985.