12.70.010 Legislative findings.
A. The City Council does hereby find that:
1. Numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution, and that breathing secondhand smoke is a cause of disease, including lung cancer, in nonsmokers. At special risk are elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease;
2. Health hazards induced by breathing secondhand smoke include lung cancer, heart disease, respiratory infection, decreased respiratory function, broncho-constriction, and broncho-spasm;
3. More than 440,000 people die in the United States from tobacco-related diseases every year, making it the nation’s leading cause of preventable death;1
4. The United States Environmental Protection Agency has found secondhand smoke to be a risk to public health and has classified secondhand smoke as a group A carcinogen, the most dangerous class of carcinogen;2
5. The U.S. Surgeon General has concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke;3
6. Just 30 minutes of exposure to secondhand smoke is sufficient to damage blood vessels in a healthy nonsmoker;4
7. The California Air Resources Board has put secondhand smoke in the same category as the most toxic automotive and industrial air pollutants by categorizing it as a toxic air contaminant for which there is no safe level of exposure;5
8. Secondhand smoke exposure adversely affects fetal growth with elevated risk of low birth weight and increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in infants of mothers who smoke;6
9. In the United States, secondhand smoke is thought to cause about 46,000 heart disease deaths each year;7
10. Secondhand smoke can seep under doorways and through wall cracks;8
11. The only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke is to completely eliminate smoking in indoor spaces. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air, and ventilating buildings cannot completely eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke;9
12. Cigarette butts pose a health threat to children. Small children who had ingested cigarette butts exhibited symptoms of illness such as spontaneous vomiting, nausea, lethargy, and gagging;10
13. Cigarette butts are a major and persistent source of litter. In the last 25 years of coastal clean-ups, cigarette and cigarette filters ranked as the number one source of waste comprising nearly 32% of all collected litter items;11
14. Electronic smoking devices and other unapproved nicotine delivery products have a high appeal to youth due to their high tech design and availability in child-friendly flavors like cotton candy, bubble gum, chocolate chip cookie dough and cookies and cream milkshake; and
15. A CDC study showed that in 2011 4.7% of all high school students had tried e-cigarettes and that in 2012 that percentage more than doubled to 10.0% of all high school students.12
B. Accordingly, the City Council finds and declares that the purposes of this chapter are (1) to protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places, places of employment, and specially designated public play areas where small children are at risk of choking on or ingesting cigarette butts and other toxic tobacco litter, (2) to guarantee the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air, and to recognize that the need to breathe smoke-free air shall have priority over the desire to smoke, and (3) to promote self-enforcement through educational outreach regarding smoking prohibitions. (Ord. 7369-NS § 1, 2014: Ord. 7321-NS § 1, 2013: Ord. 7009-NS § 1, 2007: Ord. 6569-NS § 1, 2000: Ord. 6161-NS § 1 (part), 1992: Ord. 5713-NS § 2 (part), 1986)