Smoking Deaths High in Santa Paula, Oxnard

A higher percentage of Santa Paula and Oxnard residents die from smoking than in other Ventura County cities, but the rate of such deaths countywide is significantly below the state average, a study released Thursday shows.

Thousand Oaks and Camarillo had the lowest rate of deaths in the county attributable to smoking from 1989 to 1991, the period covered by the state Department of Health Services study.

The study did not investigate why certain cities had higher rates of smoking and smoking-related deaths. But public health officials said income, education, race, tobacco marketing and environmental restrictions are all contributing factors.

“We see patterns in how the tobacco industry is targeting groups,” said Nan Waltman, who oversees education programs at the county’s Public Health Department. “The tobacco industry is heavily billboarding, minimarketing in Latino communities and African American communities.”

In Santa Paula, about one of every five adult male deaths was linked to cigarettes, the study showed. During the same period, about one of every six adult females who died succumbed to smoking-related illness. The rates in Oxnard were roughly the same.

“They’re basically blue-collar towns,” said Jerry Leavitt, associate director of the Ventura County chapter of the American Lung Assn. “Neither one of these towns has adequately addressed the issue of smoking at the work site, or smoking in restaurants,” he said, referring to anti-smoking ordinances passed recently by several Ventura County cities.

George A. Kaplan, head of the state’s Berkeley-based Human Population Laboratory, which directed the study, said residents of poorer communities may have less access to health care.

“If they have poorer quality of care for diseases, they’re more likely to die from (them),” he said. “It’s important to see that as a property of the environment rather than something that goes along with being poor.”

Statewide, 40,000 people died each year of the study from diseases linked to smoking.

Yet the overall number of smoking-related deaths statewide declined 3.3% from 1988, a decrease officials link to increases in the tobacco tax and a change in social attitudes.

“There’s been a real shift, a sea change in attitudes across the country from 10 years ago,” said Dr. Randy Feldman, public health officer for Ventura County. “Smoking is definitely not considered OK in many circles.”

The study also found that more Californians die from cigarette smoking than from traffic accidents, homicides or suicides combined. Smoking is a factor in 19% of all California deaths.

Delano, a Central Valley town with a population of 22,762, had the highest percentage of smoking-related deaths in the state. There, 733 men per 100,000 die from illnesses linked to cigarettes. That compares to the statewide average of 450 deaths per 100,000 men and 201 per 100,000 women.

By comparison, the coastal city of Dana Point had the lowest mortality rate in the state, with just 54 women and 139 men per 100,000 dying from smoking.

The study was conducted in cities with populations of more than 20,000.

Kaplan said the mortality rates in the study underestimate the number of actual smoking-related deaths.

Deaths from secondhand smoke, cigars or pipes and fires were not counted, he said.

Survey of Cities

Smoking-related deaths in Ventura County cities per 100,000 residents.

MALES FEMALES Mortality rate Mortality rate Camarillo 300.28 148.58 Moorpark 414.50 NA Oxnard 423.28 227.23 Port Hueneme 376.14 169.46 Santa Paula 516.09 219.71 Simi Valley 377.83 202.33 Thousand Oaks 308.23 127.10 Ventura 373.21 174.69 State 449.88 201.01

Comparison to statewide mortality rate, with the statewide average being 1.00.

MALES FEMALES Mortality rate Mortality rate Camarillo 0.67 0.74 Moorpark 0.92 NA Oxnard 0.94 1.13 Port Hueneme 0.84 0.84 Santa Paula 1.15 1.09 Simi Valley 0.84 1.01 Thousand Oaks 0.69 0.63 Ventura 0.83 0.87

* Fillmore and Ojai were not included because they have populations of less than 20,000.

Source: California Department of Health Services, California Chronic and Sentinel Disease Surveillance Program