No-Smoking Signs Go Up at Two L.A. County Beaches

Lorelee Miller watched her children frolic Friday on the sandy playground at Mothers Beach in Marina del Rey, a cigarette in hand.

She said she hadn’t seen the new no-smoking sign that recently was added to the list of beach rules posted near the lifeguard stand or the palm-sized sign near the beach entrance.

And Miller said she didn’t realize that the no-smoking regulations for Los Angeles city and county beaches were already in effect, though she was happy to comply.

This Fourth of July weekend is marked by the arrival of signs notifying people they may no longer smoke on the beach -- frustrating many smokers who would rather not leave the beach just to light up, and delighting many no-smoking advocates.

“I don’t want to go all the way to my car just to have a cigarette,” said Carmen Gomez, who lives in Venice. “I just want to lie right here in the sun and relax with a smoke,” she said, resting on a towel.

Mothers Beach and Topanga Beach are the first beaches to have the signs. By the end of next week, Cabrillo, Dockweiler, Will Rogers and Venice beaches should have the signs as well, said Robert Berger, chairman of the Los Angeles County smoke-free beach task force.

Recently passed ordinances also prohibit smoking at Malibu Beach and Santa Monica Beach.

Berger said he did not expect enforcement to be particularly harsh, as people are just getting used to the laws: “I don’t think the intention is to go out on the Fourth of July and write tickets to smokers, especially when the signs are not all up yet.”

Lifeguards at Mothers Beach hadn’t noticed the new signs, but they said they had been asking people to put out their cigarettes since the ban went into effect on June 22.

They said the no-smoking enforcement isn’t their primary concern. “If we can tell people not to smoke and it’s not going to get in the way of rescues, then that’s fine, but our first job is to be looking at the water,” said Scott Davey, a lifeguard captain at Mothers Beach.

Bruce Hooks, who regularly brings his day-care charges to Mothers Beach, said he was delighted to hear the ban had started. “A lot of the time for the kids, the smoking can really irritate them, even if it’s out here on the beach,” he said.

Hooks said he’s watched children take cigarette butts out of the sand and put them in their mouths. “The butts are disgusting. Maybe the ban will make the beach a little cleaner,” he said.

Cigarettes are the leading source of beach litter and take 15 years to degrade, according to the group Communities Organized Against Smoking and Its Trash.

Local beaches probably will be a big draw for many of the roughly 800,000 people expected to travel through Los Angeles International Airport this weekend, officials said. LAX officials said travelers should expect to see “beefed-up security” at the airport during the three-day holiday weekend.

Caltrans officials said the freeway system is likely to be heavily used during the weekend, with about 5.5 million people hitting the road throughout the state. They advised motorists to leave early, expect delays and consider alternate routes.