Tobacco News

Adam Wall’s plans to open a smoking lounge in Camarillo went up in smoke last week after the City Council approved a new law requiring such businesses to sell mostly tobacco products.

The council voted unanimously on April 14 to enact an ordinance requiring retail tobacco stores and smoking lounges to generate at least 90 percent of their income from the sale of tobacco products. After a second reading of the law on April 28, the new law will go into effect on May 28.

According to studies cited by the city, tobacco-related illnesses are the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, taking more than 400,000 lives a year. Smoking causes cancer of the stomach, liver, uterine, cervix and kidneys. Secondhand smoke is responsible for up to 73,000 deaths annually among nonsmokers.

Wall, 21, told the City Council that their intention to protect children, the elderly and those with chronic illnesses, those most suspectible, from secondhand smoke is a “noble goal,” but the ordinance will be too difficult to enforce and will pull police from more important matters.

Wall is a co-owner of a threemonth-old Camarillo company, Wall and Welch’s Cigars, that sets up smoking parties in private homes throughout Ventura County.

After the board’s vote, Wall said he’s scrapping plans to open a smoking lounge in Camarillo unless the council changes the new law. Smoking lounges generally have an atmosphere of relaxation and camaraderie, he said, and food and beverage sales would be critical to the success of that business. Under the new law, he could not sell a cup of coffee and a cigar to a customer because only 50 percent of that sale would be a tobacco product.

“It’s a shame because these kinds of smokers have become a community,” Wall said.

Nonsmoker Jillian Lawson also opposed the law. She said the “overly strict” law would force smokers to ignore the law and practice their habit wherever it’s convenient.

“Increasing restrictions will do more harm than good,” Lawson told the council.

Natorae Wettstein was one of 11 people who told the council they welcome the new law.

“It sends a wonderful message to our youth when the city says this is not acceptable,” said the mother of three, who added she represents the maternal spending power in Camarillo. “I don’t shop where they smoke,” she said.

The new law also bans smoking in most outdoor areas, including dining patios, sporting and entertainment events, common areas in multiunit housing and spaces 25 feet or less from a window or door.

City staff had proposed that smoking could be permitted in private homes that operate as day care or residential care facilities when the home was not being used in those capacities.The council strengthened the language of the ordinance to ban smoking in those homes completely.

Several people told the council in writing that they support the law, Councilmember Charlotte Craven said, although some disagreed with the stipulation that retail tobacco stores and smoking lounges must be in free-standing buildings.

Craven said studies have shown that tobacco smoke moves past walls and through air ducts, electrical outlets and such to infiltrate the air elsewhere.

Craven knows the effects of secondhand smoke firsthand. She said her father was a smoker who died from lung cancer when she was 16, and she suffers from asthma brought on by the exposure to secondhand smoke.

Craven said that although she believes government shouldn’t restrict the lives of its citizens the choice to smoke tobacco shouldn’t adversely affect others.

“(We can’t let) the few affect the many,” she said.

Councilmember Don Waunch had expressed reluctance in a study session to impose a law that could impede the city’s businesses. But the ill health effects from tobacco smoke and the declining numbers of smokers won him over, he said

“I think the pros in this particular discussion far outweigh the cons, and I can support this ordinance,” Waunch said.

By Michelle Knight, Thecamarilloacorn