San Clemente Might Ban Beach Smoking

San Clemente might become the second city in California to ban smoking along its beaches.

The city’s parks and recreation commission will discuss at its 7 p.m. meeting today whether to urge the City Council to prohibit cigarette and cigar smoking at the city beach and pier and possibly city parks.

The smoking ban would not apply to San Clemente State Beach.

Enforcement would rest with police officers and lifeguards along roughly two miles of beach on both sides of the fishing pier, and violators could be cited and fined. Violations of smoking bans in other jurisdictions typically bring $50 fines.

If an ordinance is approved by the council, it would follow a groundbreaking law passed unanimously in October for 1.4 miles of shoreline in Solana Beach. That San Diego County town became the first on the West Coast to impose a beachside smoking ban. Similar restrictions have been adopted in Hawaii and along the eastern seaboard.

The Solana Beach ordinance was urged by students and the San Diego County chapter of the American Lung Assn., while the proposed ban in San Clemente is proposed by the Costa Mesa-based Earth Resource Foundation. It hopes by year’s end to persuade local officials to also snuff out beach smoking in Dana Point, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Seal Beach, which prohibited smoking on its wooden pier after a fire four years ago.

“The only reason we’re doing this is because smokers aren’t responsible for their trash,” said Stephanie Barger, the foundation’s executive director. “We’re sick and tired of picking up butts on the beach. There are health reasons, economic reasons and environmental reasons for doing this.”

In November, Earth Resource members carried a plastic trash bag bulging with about 10,000 discarded butts into Newport Beach council chambers, collected during a cleanup at the Newport Pier. So far, Newport Beach hasn’t responded to a request for a smoking ban.

San Clemente’s interest grew from publicity over the Solana Beach vote and a cigarette-butt scavenger hunt sponsored in October by the foundation. Nearly 6,000 butts were sifted in two hours from the sand near the San Clemente Pier, organizers said, prompting environmentalists and student volunteers to ask the city to duplicate Solana Beach’s ordinance.

Any new law would require education programs, signs posted at the beach and receptacles for extinguishing cigarettes, at a cost of up to $30,000 a year, according to a city staff analysis.

The city has heard from several groups supporting the concept but there has been no organized opposition, said Bill Humphreys, San Clemente’s marine safety chief.

Moves to outlaw public puffing have grown in recent years, prompted by renewed activism over the hazards of secondhand smoke. Discarded cigarettes pollute water and soil and endanger wildlife, which often mistake the butts for food.

“The trend is to protect individuals from secondhand smoke, whether they’re indoors or outdoors,” said Herm Perlmutter, who supervises the tobacco use prevention program through Orange County’s Health Care Agency.

Triggered by concerns over secondhand smoke, a state law that took effect Jan. 1 banned smoking within 20 feet of main entrances, exits and operable windows of any public building owned by a city, county or state, as well as universities and community colleges.

Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz and San Diego are considering ordinances to ban smoking on beaches and in public parks.

Supporters argue that cities can’t afford to clean up after careless smokers. Butts are consistently the largest component of shoreline trash, according to the national Ocean Conservancy, which sponsors cleanup events. The discarded waste is made of plastic cellulose acetate and takes 25 years to decompose, said the American Lung Assn., whose local chapters have backed beach smoking bans.

But smokers argue that they are being singled out, because there are many uncontrolled sources of trash on the beach.

Civil libertarians also chafe at such regulations.

“I’m diametrically opposed to these kinds of government regulations, but once they’re passed, it’s pretty nice not to have to deal with smokers,” said political consultant Adam Probolsky of Costa Mesa.

Enforcement of the Solana Beach ban has been smooth and no citations have been issued, said Debra Kelley, vice president of governmental relations for the San Diego County chapter of the American Lung Assn.

In March, the chapter plans to unveil a model ordinance for other cities to adopt.

Smoking bans and restrictions for public areas have ignited across the country in recent years.

In April 2001, the New Jersey seaside community of Belmar adopted a ban on smoking on the beach except in designated areas. Disposable ashtrays were provided in a 100-foot-wide smoking zone.