Proposed anti-smoking rules draw broad reaction

There was much about Monday's Public Safety Committee discussion about the city's proposed new anti-smoking rules that didn't make it into today's story. A brief recap for anyone who has been in a media blackout and missed our coverage (or subsequent radio and television reports), Pasadena is trying to enact some of the strictest smoking rules in the Southland by banning tobacco smoke from outdoor shopping and dining areas, large outdoor gatherings like the Rose Parade, in service lines like at ATMs, bus stops and movie theaters, and within 20 feet of all business entrances and exits.

The city's tobacco control coordinator, Statice Wilmore, said city officials had addressed the concerns of local merchants by limiting the ban to main building entrances and exits. This means employees who are smokers would be able to smoke just outside rear or service entryways without having to remove themselves by 20 feet. Of course, smoking patrons would be forced to find those rear/service entryways if they want to light up, and in many cases such areas are off limits to customers, forcing them to find a place that is 20 feet from the building's main entrance. That could prove difficult in busy commercial areas like Old Pasadena, where the distances between the front doors of many establishments aren't even 20 feet apart.

That point could be moot if Councilwoman Jacque Robinson has her way. Robinson suggested that when the matter comes back before the City Council in a month (the Public Safety Committee recommended holding off on a vote to allow more time for outreach to businesses), that city staffers consider expanding the ban to include all sidewalks in high-traffic commercial areas, like Old Pas.

Robinson also asked the city's Health Director Takashi Wada why the proposed ban did not include Brookside Golf Course, the last remaining bastion of city parkland where smoking is permitted. Robinson seemed to be responding to requests by many citizens speaking in favor of the ban during Monday's committee meeting, most of whom requested that the ban include Brookside.

Wada explained that while surveys have shown most golf course users (about 70 percent) would support such a move, city officials were working with golf course management on possible in-house restrictions separate from the smoking ordinance, including possibly prohibiting smoking during times when youth programs are being conducted on the golf course.

Wada and other city officials noted that there is still some resistance from some golfers to a blanket restriction. Such resistance -- based on the argument that the large distances between golfers on the course would minimize or nullify the effects of second-hand cigar or cigarette smoke on non-smoking golfers -- was the reason that Brookside was excluded from the smoking ban in the city's parks enacted in 2004.

Of course, reaction to the proposed new rules from smokers along Colorado Boulevard Monday was visceral.

"This is becoming a police state," said Sherry, who asked I not use her last name. She was taking a drag from her cigarette in front of her place of employment near Old Pasadena. "We are already breathing in L.A. smog so if somebody walks by and gets a whiff of a cigarette I can't see how that makes a big difference. The next thing you know they are going to tell us what to watch on TV."

But those speaking at Monday's committee hearing were equally adamant about what they saw as their right to reduce the amount of harmful air they encounter in the city's public spaces.

"I don't think it is fair to have to go outside and breathe in toxic smoke and have no say in the matter," said Lucia Gasca, a 14-year-old Pasadena resident.