ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Move on Behalf of Public Health

The city of Anaheim should follow through on Councilman Irv Pickler’s suggestion to ban smoking in the seating areas of the city-owned Anaheim Stadium and the soon-to-open Anaheim Arena.

National health studies now leave no doubt that secondhand smoking is harmful to nonsmokers. Banning smoking in the city’s public facilities is one way of protecting those who choose wisely not to smoke.

If the City Council adopts a no-smoking rule for the stadium and arena, it will put them in good company. Among the other professional sports parks that prohibit smoking are San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium, Detroit’s Tiger Stadium and Dallas’ Texas Stadium.

The Oakland Athletics baseball team bans smoking in the seating area of the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum during its games, and many other sports facilities also prohibit or restrict smoking.

According to the Los Angeles County Lung Assn., secondhand smoke contributes nationally to 53,000 deaths a year among nonsmokers. It also affects people with respiratory problems and is particularly harmful to children, whose lungs are not yet fully developed.

Another idea from Pickler is to ban tobacco advertising in sports facilities; although appealing as a companion measure, that proposal is less clear-cut and should not be enacted.

For example, banning advertising for cigarettes and other tobacco products but not instituting a similar ban on ads for alcohol--which also can cause health problems when abused or during pregnancy--would be inconsistent.

A ban on advertisements might involve a free-speech issue, too, which could draw the Anaheim facilities into an expensive legal battle. Banning smoking in the seating areas of sports facilities, however, carries no such problem. It can be done with a simple majority vote of the council--the sooner, the better.