July 8th, 2009 11:19

Malibu Beaches, Smoking Ban Victims

The city council proclaimed no smoking in public open places, especially on Malibu beaches.  Malibu is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, north of Santa Monica in the Northwest corner of Los Angeles County. It offers some of the finest and most renowned beach areas in California.

The Malibu City Council voted to adopt a law that would prohibit smoking in public open spaces beginning July 31.

The new legislation would ban smoking cigarettes within 20 feet of a public event, such as a farmers' market. It would also ban smoking within 20 feet of outdoor dining areas on public or private property, such as hotels and supermarkets.

Businesses with outdoor dining areas would be also asked, evidently, to put and provide "No smoking" signs within the area.

Such an ordinance has not yet been determined, but the decision of implementing such an order will be based on the amount of public outreach and level of compulsion.

But a big amount of population thinks in this way: "I am very displeased with the need of people to force smokers to quit. Everything comes in time in life. Enforcing new laws everywhere is not going to force people to quit. It will only cause them feelings of quilt, anger, and a sense of being a bad person. In general a smoker is not a bad person, only a person with a bad habit. Now, the need to force smokers to not be able to smoke in their cars is unreal. Come on, where is our free America. Smokers have rights too. Enough is enough. I could see banning smoking in restaurants, but not bars. I mean come on. Work places, I can agree with that. But, now "No smoking" on public beaches too. This is an open air space people. Stop it. Enough is really enough."

Anti-tobacco researchers argued that while banning smoking in dining areas and at public events would improve air quality, it would actually increase pollution. The new legislation would force people to smoke outside the prohibited area and drop their cigarette butts on the ground when they are finished.

Moreover, the aim of the city's ban on smoking at the beach would be defeated, as littered cigarettes would eventually end up there.

A councilmember said: "Most of the cigarette butts will end up in the storm drain. I feel that we do need to provide some kind of receptacle. Maybe to write an ordinance that doesn't provide for the unintended consequences of that ordinance isn't a good idea."

But City Lawyer Christi Hogin argued that business owners would not be responsible for individuals who littered their cigarettes outside the prohibited smoking area because they would be doing so on public property enforced by Sheriff's agents.

Longtime Malibu resident William McCarthy, a professor of public health at UCLA, told the conference in February that a measurable decrease in lung cancer rates, particularly in California, has been noted in places such as Calabasas that have adopted ordinances banning smoking. The majority of the population will profit from adopting the ordinance.

Majority of inhabitants have also voiced their support for the ordinance not only for its health benefits, but for environmental ones as well.