Tobacco Documents Online

2025084'724 ! W 00 d` P-4 County close to bei By Bill Snyder Umes sta0 wher Contra Costa is close to becoming the first county - - in the state in which every city regulates smoking, and local businesses have warned the ordinances will be intrusive, difficult to administer and bad for business. But businesF people and officials in some of the 68 California cities that have passed anti-smoking laws say those fears may be exaggerated. When San Francisco adopted what was then the toughest anti-smoking ordinance in any major Ameri- c-an city, pro-smokers responded with a bitter, $1.2 million-rrtnpaign that missed repealing the law by a whisker. Nearly two years later, said some of the city's larg- est employers, people are wondering what all the fuss was about. "It has gone incredibly weU,"said John Angius, a spukesman for PG&E, which employs about 7,000 people at 11 San Francisco locations. "The few prob•s lems we've had were solved by moving some furniture around." In Pasadena, restaurant owners worried that a pro- posed anti-smoking law would drive away customers frustrated by long waits in designated smoking sec- tions. But six months after the law went on the books, a survey by the city showed the measure was "effective, easily enforced" and having no effect on the restau- ant business. The county government and 15 of Contra Costa's 18 incorporated cities have adopted ordinances re- stricting smoking in restaurants, public buildings and work places, and the last three communites - Orinda, - Moraga and Pleasant Hill - are expected to act on similar laws by next month. If the non-smoking forces continue their winning ways, they will have won over 19 elected bodies rep- resenting 706,500 people in less than six months. To- tal expenditures have been less than $10,000, said Carolyn Bovat of the Smoking Education Coalition, which orchestrated the local anti-smoking movement. The so-far unbroken string of victories in Contra Costa came so easily that tobacco industry lobbyist Kristen Swigart commented, "It must be the right t~ng to do politically." tlre nearly identical ordinances ban smoking in public places, including stores, theaters and bank lob-. bies, and require restaurants with 50 or more seats to ~ reserve 40 percent of the dining area for non-smokers. At the work place, 40 percent of an employee lunchroom must be set aside for non-smokers and smoking is banned in elevators, hallways and confer- ence - ence rooms. Smoking in private offices is permitted, but if a --- - conflict between smokers and non-smokers can't be resolved by a compromise, the rights of the non-smok-r er will prevail, the laws say. Unlike the brouhaha that erupted in San Francisco - when the anti-smoking law passed in 1983, opposition in Contra Costa has been relatively light, said Bovat. "I expected a tougher fight," she said. "But I guess the time has come for this." Public hearings around the county at- tracted few participants, and nearly all the speak- ers against the mea- sures were either repre- sentatives of the tobacco industry or speakers for local chambers of com- merce, Bovat said. Opponents of the measures said they were unenforcable, unneces- sary and a generally noxious instance of gov-t ernment poking its nose into the business of business. Jack Welch, execu- tive vice president and general manager of the Walnut Creek chamber, said, "We feel the fewer smoke-free Members of the East Bay restaurant industry op- posed the measures, and like their colleagues in Pasa- dena, they feared it would be impossible to balance a variable number of customers with an invariable seat- ing arrangement for smokers and non-smokers. "Every restaurant is different, and every hour and every meal is different," said Lea Adza of the 8,000- member California Restaurant Association. Swigart, a Sacramento-based lobbyist for the To- bacco Institute, characterized measures like the one in - - Walnut Creek as "unenforcable" and called for self- regulation by businesses. "We think it is something better done voluntarily," she •said. But in San Jose, efforts by the City Council to con- vince businesses to police themselves were unsucces- ful, said Doug Barlow, chief of the city's code compQ-e ance division. "We got numerous calls from citizens saying noth- ing was happening," he said. And in November 1989, the city passed a mandatory law restricting smoking in public places. In. Poway, a city of 38,000 near San Diego, city oft'i- , cials said their smoking-control law has been easy to ------ - - enforce and cost the city very little. "After the fust year," reads a city memo,''the ordi- - - nance is totally accepted." City officials in Mountain View said their ordi• nance was working well, and in nearby Palo Alto, a -- - - spokesman for Varian Associates, which employs 5.500 people, said, "It went so smoothly that it wasn't even recognized." Although most anti-smoking ordinances call for civil penalties and fines, all the city officials contacted by the Times said they didn't need to wield a big stick. "We haven't used fines and we aren't interested in using them., We are interested in gaining compliance," id B wn bal istaAt to the i ma a er f ar a $ro , ass c ty n g o ~ , sa ~ guess the ~lmg • C_ uperjino.'} rules put on business has cow ,~;: ',1!l;si~~ months we've had five complaints. I think •the better. Let us 6e1(- .. ~, ,that means it is working." reguiate." for 1hl,S- . ~ 14,slno~Cers in other cities concede the new era Bovat, the coalition's it t~ t tsn t t~a~l~~a~tter all. only paid staffer and on't• like it when someone tells me to put out a mayor of Glayton, re• -Carolyn Bov43t 'qgarblte,'but this is working out pretty well," said plieds "The air you ' • Laura'.Fradella, a pack-a-day smoker at Wells Fargo's reath is a health issue. anll-smokm b ~' San Francisco headquarters. v af ~' e is go Making it s - ; QCtIV1SE! en7unent's responsibility. - s ;+• • Please see SMOKE, Page 13A

I x x i ----------- --- I . / . ... .... , ., ..,•,. Uul sive erpecta ;. 1'm here in the fervent hope that on fiuth sides .rre expected tu sil;n a behalf of all the people of the world, SMOKE From Page 1 A Fradella works in a small, poorly ventilated section of the bank that houses 16 employees, evenly divid- ed between smokers and non-smok- ers. Since the anti-smoking ordi- nance went into effect, smokers agreed to use smokeless ashtrays provided by the company and not to indulge their habit in hallways or near other people's work areas. "It has become a non-issue here," said Fradella's supervisor. Dennis Woolen. A publicist for the bank said Wells Fargo has introduced similar policies throughout its California - operations and-is pleased with the results. "We've been pleasantly sur- prised prised at how easily it was imple- mented." she said. Like other employers contacted, officials at the Bank of America headquarters in San Francisco said their expenditures to comply with the law have been negligible and of- fice work flow has not been disrupt- -- ed. ruvanrun }i!°~~natu5tarl anu U.J. policies tnt ,dral America. They delivered letters to the U.S. and So- Not every experience with the new law has been pain free, howev er. At the San Francisco Chronicle, reporters were reduced to taking smokes on the fire escape, and the first weeks of the smokeless news- room were "pretty tense." said li- brarian Michael Hubble. --- "But things have quieted down;'he said. Claudia Marshall, an"- employee of a bathroom products wholesaler in San Francisco, said she was fired Sunday. Novenber 17• 1985 Coetre Costa TIrroe4-P-aqe /~A a EXTENDED WEAR SPECTACUL.AR! Contact Lenses Are My Only Business! • SERVICE• QUAL[TY• VALUE $SOFT LENSES 9 9 COMPLETE PRICE INCLUDES FITT-!NG t~r a c v sads t+c5on~ti dst+c5on Mll 1 k e l 7 ~eRky er~ yer nA Fi A Wea ensaM c t~OC~WI /M(;NAEL S. rnte~. SYtNt39 day savkrr on nwA! Pntsc~lptlons. 2nd Patr of tbrrna- bna onpu ly . WM1Et3. O.D.. LIMITED TIME ONLY-ACTNOWI Also Avahable: ®ausch & Lomb Daily Wear Lenses $69 complete and Ciba 3oM Cobrse $129 complete. Dr. Michael S. Cypress, Optometrist, Inc. 1ti40San Miguel Orlve, Sulte 102 Walnut Cresk, CA 94596 (A15) 947-0955 (2 btocks east of Nocdstroms) r a Jwtss mdtlary hunor guard in f_atn- cy 19th Century uniforms and tri- comer hats. 30 minutes after she asked her boss to stop smoking and is suing for $100,000. The city Health Department re- ceived dozens of complaints in the first months the ordinance wentinto effect, and needed to assign a full- time inspector to handle the flood of calls. By last spring, however, the flood had been reduced to a t_rickle and the inspector now spends about one day a week worrying about smoking, said Bruce Tsutsui, who enforces the law. )WN %OF ORIGINAL PRICE 0 c; 0l p[ 11.101_1 - 1 '61 'n©N 's,)nj uo uosiad u! (•dx3 •s3 aadaa-

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