Smoking Snuffed out in Orinda

The City of Orinda adopted an ordinance March 15 regulating smoking in designated areas of the city, including outdoor dining areas, outdoor recreational areas and city property that is used for an outdoor event. The new law restricts smoking beyond areas regulated by state law.

Orinda had previously banned smoking only in certain parks and nature areas, and prohibited selling tobacco products to minors, which contributed to its receiving the lowest grade for tobacco control from the American Lung Association. But even the new, tougher smoking restrictions, initiated by then-Mayor Steve Glazer in 2015, proved insufficient to some.

Speaking at the March 1 council meeting, Mary Jacodine of the Contra Costa Tobacco Prevention Coalition urged the council to push the ban even further by adding electronic smoking devices to the ordinance. "Cigarette use has declined, but the use of these new products has increased to the point of eclipsing the progress we've made on cigarettes," she said.

The council did not add the new products but directed the city staff to produce an additional ordinance to cover a ban on the use of electronic smoking devices, and typical emerging products, in all areas where smoking is banned in the city. Only Vice Mayor Eve Phillips dissented.

"Picking up whatever the state decides to do in that category would be fine," she said. "There are questions about the second-hand smoke effects, and the amount of particulate matter that comes out of (the electronic smoking devices) is such a tiny fraction of traditional smoking that it really doesn't fall into the same category.

"The ordinance as written covers the needs of our community."



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