Study Rates Efforts by Cities to Battle Tobacco Ads

A report card released by an anti-tobacco coalition on Tuesday said the cities best protecting children from cigarette advertising in the county are those in some of the areas most targeted by tobacco companies.

San Fernando received the highest grade for passing ordinances that restrict advertisements likely to reach children, followed by Los Angeles, according to the nonprofit Los Angeles Regional Control Community Linkage Project, known as L.A. Link.

Rounding out the top 10 were Inglewood, Carson, La Puente, Covina, Long Beach, Compton, West Hollywood and the county government.

“The tobacco industry has really saturated ethnic neighborhoods with outdoor advertisements,” said Pat Etem, executive director of L.A. Link. “And the cities that by and large have had the most progressive laws are the ones with the large populations of Latinos and African Americans.”

L.A. Link is a tobacco control group funded by state tobacco taxes with members from health care, education, government and community groups.

In San Fernando, a grass-roots group called Pueblo y Salud has fought vigilantly to restrict billboards and storefront signs with tobacco and alcohol ads near schools, churches, playground and parks. The City Council recently passed laws requiring retailers to get a license from the city in order to sell cigarettes and to keep them behind the counter, so that a buyer must ask for them.