Secondhand Smoke and Area Restaurants

Although we in the South Bay like to think of ourselves as responsive to our communities’ needs, we are lagging behind our unwieldy neighbor to the north in one important area: Los Angeles has taken steps to protect its restaurant employees and patrons from the proven dangers of secondhand smoke by instituting a smoke-free restaurant policy. Pasadena, Santa Monica and West Hollywood have recently done the same. Yet Rancho Palos Verdes is the only South Bay city to do so.

The Environmental Protection Agency says that secondhand smoke is a known cancer-causing agent--in the same category as radon and asbestos! It is responsible for 53,000 deaths every year. Ventilation conditions make restaurant workers especially vulnerable to its effects, and one study found that four times as many waitresses die of lung cancer than women in other occupational groups in California.

The tobacco industry’s claim that restaurant sales dropped following adoption of smoke-free policies was discredited by the finding that tax receipts did not fall when the smoke-free policy was adopted. In fact, without a smoke-free policy, restaurants could be held liable if their nonsmoking employees develop smoking-related diseases.

There is simply no safe exposure level to secondhand smoke. It’s time for the cities of the South Bay to clear the air in restaurants and other enclosed workplaces. While a statewide smoke-free policy is the ultimate goal, the reality of politics suggests that individual cities must take the responsibility of protecting their residents from secondhand smoke. Local governments need to take action by adopting smoke-free ordinances now. And local residents need to help this process by calling or writing their elected city council representatives to urge that action be taken immediately.

DR. MALIN DOLLINGER

President, South Bay League

American Cancer Society