Beach smoke ban praised

Barbara Diamond

Anti-smoking groups honored Laguna Beach Monday in a presentation

commending the city’s two-month-old ban of smoking on public beaches.

“We have this ritual of cutting a ribbon,” said Dr. Mark Horton,

deputy director and public health officer for the county of Orange.

“Laguna Beach is on the cutting edge of beach protection.”

The Orange County Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition organized the

presentation at Main Beach. Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman accepted a

plaque on behalf of the city and helped cut the symbolic ribbon at

the smoke-free beach

“In Laguna, the protection is two-fold,” Kinsman said. “It is not

just what smoking does to people, it’s also what it does to our wild

life. Our beach cleanup people brought bags of butts to a council

meeting and all that stuff could have gone directly into the ocean.”

The presentation also included representatives of the, the Orange

County Department of Education, the County of Orange Health Care

Agency and World No Tobacco Day.

“We have worked for 15 years to rid the indoors of smoking and now

we are stretching our work to the outdoors,” coalition chair Phil

Falcetti said. “Good things are happening on the coastline.

“Today is World No Tobacco Day and to get this many people here on

a Tuesday morning demonstrates how influential the coalition is.”

About 30 supporters of smoking bans attended.

“Main Beach is the best beach in the world,” said Cynthia Schafer,

a Laguna Beach resident for 25 years before she moved to Laguna

Woods. “I used to come here and someone would light up so we’d have

to move. Now, we don’t.”

The Laguna Beach City Council passed the ordinance prohibiting

smoking on city beaches in March. Laguna is the fourth Orange County

coastal city to ban smoking on its beaches, joining San Clemente,

Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

California adult smoking has dropped 33 percent since 1988 when

California voters passed Proposition 99, the state’s anti-tobacco

program, according to state public health officials.

“Deaths from lung cancer have dropped 14 percent in California,”

said Herm Permutter, county health care agency program supervisor.

The goals of the coalition are to reduce tobacco use and exposure

to environmental tobacco smoke in Orange County by mobilizing a

broad-based network of community organizations and committed

individuals.

“Laguna Beach deserves kudos,” said Jim Walker, spokesman for Stop

Tobacco Abuse by Minors Pronto, or STAMP.

Statistics show that 5 million people die worldwide every year

because of smoking, according to Walker.

“In the United States that’s three 9/11s every week,” Walker said.

Speakers at the presentation also included tobacco prevention

advocate Debi Austin, recently seen on a nationally broadcast reality

show.

“It’s awesome to take care of people who can’t take care of

themselves -- who have no voice,” Austin said in her whispery,

mechanically enhanced voice. .

Austin began smoking at 13 and had her cancerous larynx removed at

42. “I’ll never forget the people who helped me get cigarettes when I

was a kid,” Austin said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 6,000 young

people try smoking every day. More than 3,000 of them will continue

to smoke.

The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report projects that more than

5 million of U.S. children now under 18 will die prematurely from

tobacco-related causes.

Second-hand smoke can cause colds and ear infections in children

and is especially dangerous for children and adults with asthma or

other chronic diseases.

The coalition has 39 member organizations, including the Orange

County chapters of the American Cancer Society, Heart and Lung

associations, UC Irvine Tobacco Use Research Center, Cal State

universities in Long Beach and Fullerton and the County of Orange

Health Care Agency, Health Promotion Division.

For more information, call the agency’s tobacco use prevention

program at (714) 541-1444, coalition chair Falcetti at (949) 595-2288

or Vicki Walker at the Orange County Department of Education at (714)

327-1068.