Supervisors Will Consider Smoking Ban : Government: Regulations would apply to restaurants, businesses and stores in unincorporated areas. Existing city rules would not be affected.

Banished to special sections in restaurants or to chilly back steps at the office, smokers are the target of proposed regulations in Orange County that call for a ban on puffing in eateries, private businesses and retail stores in unincorporated areas of the county.

The ban, to be considered Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors, would also eliminate all tobacco sales from vending machines by early next year.

If approved, the new regulations would apply only to unincorporated areas, such as Sunset Beach, Rossmoor, North Tustin and the El Modena section of Orange, and would not affect existing smoking ordinances enforced by at least 17 city governments. Violators would face fines of up to $100 per infraction.

With recent city incorporations in South County taking a lot of territory away from county jurisdiction, deputy public health officer Rick Greenwood said the proposed restrictions would apply only to about 100 local restaurants, while the numbers of offices and shops were not immediately known.

“The elimination of tobacco smoke is considered by all health care professionals as one lifestyle change that has the greatest impact on personal health,” Greenwood said.

A University of California study conducted three years ago found that 19% of all Orange County residents were smokers. Since that time, Greenwood said, it is believed the rate has decreased to 18%.

As proposed, the new regulations would force restaurants with seating capacities of 50 or more to increase nonsmoking areas from 20% to 75% of capacity by February, 1994. The total ban would take effect in January, 1995. Restaurants of smaller size would impose a total ban by February, 1994.

Except in private offices where all employees are smokers, the proposed regulations would eliminate all smoking within every building by February, 1994. That would include rooms now designated as smoking areas. The rules also would prohibit smoking in county government vehicles. For retail stores, the restrictions would also take effect early next year.

“There are so many people on the (nonsmoking side) of this issue in Orange County that I don’t think there will be much controversy at all,” Greenwood said.

However, the county’s proposed action came as a surprise to Mike Rhodes, president of the Orange County division of the California Restaurant Assn.

“Of all the issues facing restaurants today, this one is the most emotional,” Rhodes said of his 600-member organization. “This is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Although the association approves of a smoking ban, Rhodes said his group would prefer to have the state pass legislation that would apply across California.

Rhodes said inconsistent smoking policies adopted by various local governments have created pockets of “unfair competition” where customers may elect to frequent certain eateries over others because of differing smoking rules.

“This should really be an issue the state deals with,” Rhodes said.

The Los Angeles Hospitality Coalition has advocated the same position in its fight against a restaurant smoking ban in the city of the Los Angeles.

“It really puts some restaurants at a competitive disadvantage when a client can go across the street to get away from a smoking policy,” said Dana Reed, attorney for the coalition. “My clients really want a statewide policy.”

But Greenwood said the issue is best suited for local government control, where officials could respond quickly to recent findings by the Environmental Protection Agency, which this summer classified secondhand smoke as a “Group A” carcinogen. The designation is reserved for the most dangerous substances known to cause cancer in humans.

Last year, a study by the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing estimated that 20% of all deaths in Orange County each year are related to tobacco use.

“Tobacco use causes more deaths in Orange County than alcohol, accidents, AIDS, suicide, homicide, illegal drugs and fires combined,” county officials stated in a report prepared for the Board of Supervisors.

“This is being proposed for the protection of people who don’t smoke,” Greenwood said. “So many people have told us that they don’t like to eat in a place that permits smoking. I just don’t think it’s quite the issue in Orange County than it is in other places.”