COUNTYWIDE : County to Push for Anti-Smoking Laws
Ventura County will step up its effort to ban smoking in public buildings and restaurants in the wake of an Environmental Protection Agency report that said secondhand smoke can cause cancer, a county official said Thursday.
The county’s Public Health Services wants to “push cities that don’t have them to put anti-smoking laws on the books,” said Nan Waltman, a senior health educator with the county’s Tobacco Education and Control Center.
“The report also made it clear that cities that allow (limited) smoking in buildings and restaurants are not providing for a safe level,” Waltman said. “One cigarette can pollute a whole room.”
The report, released Thursday, said secondhand smoke is a potent carcinogen responsible for an estimated 3,000 deaths from lung cancer each year.
In Ventura County, only Santa Paula and Fillmore do not have laws that prohibit smoking in public buildings or reserve at least 50% of restaurant tables for nonsmokers, Waltman said.
City officials in Santa Paula and Fillmore could not be reached for comment.
Waltman said she is also working with residents of Thousand Oaks who are lobbying to strengthen that city’s ordinance. Thousand Oaks is among the eight cities in the county that set aside at least 50% of the space in public buildings for nonsmokers, she said.
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