REGION : New Smoking Ban Sparks Confusion

As the aroma of sauteed onions, bell peppers and garlic wafted in the air of the brightly lighted Huntington Park restaurant, Jose Escobar showed off his homemade posters: a carefully drawn red circle with a diagonal line crossing out a burning cigarette and a phrase in black or orange letters, “No Fumar.”

No smoking--by order of a state law that took effect Jan. 1 banning smoking in virtually all enclosed places of employment, such as restaurants, factories, stores, malls, movie theaters, office buildings and other indoor workplaces.

With the recent enactment of the smoke-free workplace act, area businesses such as Escobar’s Costa Brava Salvadoran restaurant have wondered how the law is to be enforced.

The law states that municipalities are required to assign an enforcement agency, which could include health departments.

Huntington Park is the only area city so far that has designated an enforcement agency, the Police Department. But other cities have been reluctant to devote scarce resources to enforcement, opting to refer complaints to the Los Angeles County Health Department for now.

Violating the law could cost business owners fines from $100 to $500. Repeat offenders would have to pay much higher penalties that could run in the thousands of dollars.

Some business people, like Escobar, have taken it upon themselves to comply without waiting to see how it is going to be enforced.

Banning smoking “is very good because it helps the customers and the children,” said Escobar, who says smoking and being around smoke in the restaurant aggravated respiratory problems. “My employees smoke less, too, because they have to go outside” to do it.

For the most part, businesses have complied with the law, said Cynthia Hillet, who coordinates enforcement for the Los Angeles County Health Department. No citations have been written to date.

Although most of the area cities had either ordinances or policies that prohibit smoking in city offices, none had laws barring smoking in places of employment. Only Huntington Park and Maywood had a law prohibiting city employees from lighting up in city government offices.

“We find that most laws like these are self-enforcing,” said Ron George, South Gate’s police chief and city manager. “But if businesses need assistance, we will be there to help.” The Police Department will act on any complaints it receives, he added, although the City Council has not officially designated his department as the enforcing agency.

A lot of the confusion about which city agency should enforce the new law has stemmed from concern by officials over who should pay for enforcement.

“It’s fine for the state to pass mandates, but we’ve been cutting back rather than adding services in the city,” said Cudahy City Manager Jack Joseph.

To offset any city staff time used to enforce the law, Hillet said county officials may allow individual cities to keep some revenue from citations.

Citations will be written like traffic tickets, Hillet said. The law states that after three complaints, the first fine to an offending business owner will be $100. Second-time offenders within a year will have to pay $200. The third violation and any subsequent offenses will cost $500.

“After that, complaints can be filed with the (California Occupational Safety and Health Administration),” Hillet said, adding that the state agency would go to the establishment to investigate. Cal-OSHA fines can be thousands of dollars.

Although Huntington Park has assigned its Police Department to enforce the law, “we don’t anticipate there being any radicals out there that would warrant police involvement,” said Huntington Park Mayor Ric Loya.

Tobacco control is high on the city’s agenda. Last summer, Loya declared a health crisis in the city after a state Department of Health report stated that Huntington Park had the eighth-highest number of smoking deaths in the state.

The report cited the city as having the 16th-highest rate for males, with 593 deaths per 100,000 people a year, and 11th in the state for females with 261 deaths.

South Gate also made the list of the top 20 California cities in smoking-related deaths with a rate of 555 for males and 255 for females.

When the bill was signed into law in July, health officials found that restaurant owners were concerned about losing business because of the restrictions.

Nevertheless, those concerns may be unfounded. According to a 1992 UC Berkeley-UC San Francisco study, in municipalities with 100% smoke-free ordinances such laws have no significant impact on restaurant sales.

At Huntington Park’s Costa Brava, Escobar agreed.

“People haven’t complained, because they know that smoking is bad for you,” said Escobar, a former smoker. “Customers keep coming in and if they want to smoke, they have no problem smoking outside.”