Endorsement: Sonoma should stamp out secondhand smoke

Measure W brings much-needed update to ‘90s-era public smoking ordinance|

Smoke ’em if you got ’em, Sonoma.

That’s our advice to smokers now through Nov. 8. That’s when Sonoma voters will consider Measure W, a new second-hand smoke ordinance intended to pump some fresh air into the city’s nearly 25-year-old tobacco restrictions. Just how dated are Sonoma’s current smoking restrictions (or, Ordinance 92-22 as you know them)?

Well, as of now, Sonomans can enjoy their Virginia Slims in “smoking areas” at work, in bars, in 70 percent of hotel rooms, in private functions at restaurants and in shared-spaces of apartments. Sonoma’s come a long way, baby – but not when it comes to second-hand smoke.

If the bylaws of the 1992 voter-approved ordinance seem a bit out of date, the update looks to purse the smoking restrictions tighter than a cigarillo hand-rolled by the Marlboro Man himself.

If Measure W passes, into the ashtray of history will go Sonomans’ ability to light up in apartment buildings, hotels, enclosed common areas, indoor or outdoor dining areas, outdoor recreational areas and parks and in outdoor public space. The prohibitions would extend to vaping and marijuana, if it were to become legalized, as well.

And just to make sure no uninvited smoke makes its way into any unintended lungs, smoking would be prohibited within 25 feet of any area where smoking is already prohibited.

One might argue it’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle – but we’re not sure genies would be legally allowed out of their bottles under the proposed new restrictions.

Back in 1992, smoking was still somewhat socially acceptable – Sharon Stone puffed her way to superstardom that year in “Basic Instinct” and Joe Camel was still enticing teenage boys to become a “smooth character” like him and his smarmy ungulate pals. When your town’s smoking rules date back to the run of the Atari 2600, any get-with-the-times 21st century update is going to seem Draconian by comparison.

But in reality, Sonoma has largely already conformed to the proposed new prohibitions, in practice if not by directive, with scofflaws more the exception than the rule. People still smoke, no doubt. But it’s just not as present in day-to-day public life – a trend consistent with California as a whole, which boasts the lowest smoking rates in any state outside of Utah.

Secondhand smoke is not just a matter of an invasion of someone else’s personal space – it can also have health consequences. There is no “risk free” level of exposure to it, according to both the U.S. Surgeon General and the California Air Resources Board. The California Environmental Protection Agency lists it among the chemicals known to cause cancer and birth defects. Will a tiny amount of secondhand smoke give you cancer? Probably not. Could a lot of it over the course of many months in a popular bar or apartment building affect someone’s health? Potentially.

And while we have some sympathy for smokers who simply wish to enjoy a legal product somewhere outside their own home, it’s time to face the facts: it ain’t 1992 anymore; society isn’t so accepting anymore of having to choke down someone else’s unfiltered menthol.

Twenty five years ago, 25 percent of U.S. adults smoked, according to the CDC. Today it’s down to about 16 percent. The simple truth is, 84 percent of the population doesn’t smoke – a number that’s probably even higher in Sonoma – and none of them wants to taste the leavings of a Custard’s Last Stand vaper while window shopping along First Street East.

No organized opposition to Measure W has surfaced. We consider that a sign Sonoma is ready to further dig its heals into the smoldering embers of secondhand smoke.

We recommend a Yes on Measure W.

– Jason Walsh, editor

– John Burns, publisher

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