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Home My WebLink About1972-12-19; City Council; 986; Smoking in Council ChambersI :- ! I I I 1 I \- ! ' \ I T~ CITY OF CARLSBAD, CALIFO~IA Ager,da 8 i 11 ~o. t?& lP ~.'--"'-=-- " Referred To: Subject: Smoking in Council Chambers · Statement of the Matter Date December 19, 1972 Submitted By: Councilman Robert Frazee Recently, several citizens who have attended council meetings gave the unsolicited suggestion that smoking be prohibited within the council chambers. They submit that people come to council meetings and are so uncomfortable sitting near someone who is smoking, that they do not return. Cigarette smoke is an un~ecessary distraction to persons attending import- ant public meetings, such as the City Council and Planning Commission meetings. Prohibition of smoking would reduce maintenance costs for the Council Chambers. After any public meeting, the janitor spends an undue amount of time cleaning stains off the entry way tile, picking up spilled ash trays, vacuuming the rugs, and as a result, must shampoo the carpet more often than would otherwise be necessary. There is the further cost of repairing carpet burned by falling ashes or cigarettes. There is considerable support for our action to protect the environment within; the Chambers. Exhibit (A), taken from a recent national magazine, treats the problem succinctly and squarely. 11 lt is not only FAIR but ESSENTIAL that non-smokers be protected from other people 1 s fumes.11 Exhibit (A) Article 11 Non-Smokers, Arise!11 from November 1972 Reader's Digest. ?taff Recommendations i ' ', l (. .....-------:i; J,. - AB _llo. , Date: December 19, 1972 City Manager's Recorr.mendation Policy Matter. /, .. Council ·.Action • -12-19-72. -Following cons'iderabie discussion, by a majority vote it was agreed that "No Smoking" signL be posted in tfte Council Chimbe~s. '. .. .. : ' '' I' : i l ! l } - I ,, ! .. tl ., ,I ·,1 d Where there's smoke, there's i· --and ~ctual physical irritation. - Here arc tips for the troubl~d No11-S1nol(ers, Pirise~ Condemcd from EMPIRE lllAX W,t.-.ER i' ', '·' " -; ,. ~ i G,s,:,1:-G for breath, the patient allergist and internist, puts the child's oresence. The babv was well was rushed to a hospital. A problem squarely: "\Ve read of in-for 18 months. Then he' developed hole was cut into his wind-dustrial vapors, automobile and jct-a dry cough. The mother confessed pipe. so that air could reach his plane exhausts that contaminate the to the doctor that she had started lungs. He recovered. But soon his air. We never hear of the millions smoking again. She stopped-this symptoms began to recur. His physi-of human exhausts expelling tobac-time pcrmanentlr, cian sent him to an allergist, who co smoke.'' He cites a Census Rec::ntly, two pediatricians at the diagnosed the culprit: tobacco Dureau ccmpilation which states Mayo Clinic, in Rochcs:er, Minn., smoke. This was odd, because the that in one recent year seven billion studied 400 asthmatic children. 'nvo patient had never smoked. He was, cigars and ;73 billion cigarettes thirds of the 400, it was found, lived in fact, only one year old. were "combusted" into the air. in homes where at least one parent At 33, a tc-icher with srmptoms That adds up to approximately one still smoked, despite earlier warn- 0€ h_eart disease-periodic severe billion pounds of burning tob:icco I ings from t~e clinic that they should chest pains and rapid pulse,-gave which would seem to qualify tobac-I ne\·er do so m anv room or car where up smoking. But, after years of com-co as a major pollutant. ' the children we~e present. Months plete abstinence and much improved Those who suffer from respira-!Jter, the Mayo researchers conduct- health, his old symptoms mysterious-tory allergies may be serio"usly cd a follow-up survey of 35 homes of ly returned. Herc, too, the allergist threatened by exposure to tobacco asthmatic children whose parents found tobacco smoke guilty. smoke. About II percent of the na• had smoked. In 20 of these homes. In both case$, distress had been tion's population-some:-::?.? million smoking had been clin,jn:itecl. and caused by poisonous\moke exhaled -:ire sufficiently affiictcd by respira-in 18 of these the children's asthma from the mouth and lungs of otlzers. tory allergies to seek medical help. had shown :m improvement. In the Physicians have for some time Thus the added suffering caused 1; homes where grownups pcrsis•ed been reporting that non-smokers ll by smokers has become, according in puffing away, only four of the suffer from other people's tobacco , to Dr. B: M. Zussm:in, ,l Memphis asthmatic children showed any im- fumcs. Now Surgeon General Jesse :illergist, "a problem of major im-provement, and the report ascribed L. Steinfeld has made it official. portance to the national health." this to "other factors." Other people's smoking, he says in Dr. Frank Rosen of Maplewood, faen the most innocent non- hi~ 1972 report, "The I·fo,1lth Consc-N.J~ co-founder and past president smoker of all-the embryo in the qucnccs of Smoking," is exacerbat-, of the New Jersey Allergy ~ociety womb-can have its growth ad- ing respiratory allergies in children : :ind a pioneer in battling pollution, versdy affected br a smoking moth- and adults; is retarding fetal growth ' agrees. It was he who diagnosed er, according to Surgeon General and increasing the incidence of pre• 1 1 , tobacco smoke as the cause of the Steinfeld's report. Dr. Steinfeld cites mature birth; and is causing acute trouble encountered by both the: a Swedish study of 6363 pregnant irritation and taxing hearts :ind one-year-old baby and the 33-ycar-women during which records were lungs of non-smokers bv loading old teacher. The baby's mother had kept of stillbirths and deaths of in- the air in smoke-filled rooms with bcc:n an incessant smoker for years. fan ts up to the age of one year. What carbon monoxide, the deadly poison She smoked all through her preg-researchers described as the "tot:il found in auto exhaust. nancy and even when she was nurs-death risk" turned out to be 6o- The American Medical Associa-ing, feeding and di~,pcring the baby. percent higher for offspring of smok- tion estimates that at least 34 million Dr. Rosen banned all smoking in ers than of non-smokers. The Americans :ire sensitive to cigarette ' the house and anywhere in the Steinfeld report :ilso cites a massive smoke; they have respiratorv condi- lions which arc made worie, often dangerously so, by tobacco fumes.· Dr. Harry Swartz, New York City EXHIBIT 11 A11 " - British sur\'cY which di~clo1cd thlt ,rants, planes, sporting arenas and in cvcrv thOl;sand births there were the like by demanding a non-smok- 7-3 ps~s of congcnit:il h~art di1e_ase ing area, preferably a separate room, among the progeny ot smok111g as a prior condition for patronage. 1 mothers, as compared to 4.7 among You can work to enlarge the list of )I those of the non-smokers. public areas :md establishments Many smokers :ire brutally inscn-where smoking is prohibited, and : sith·c to the pain and danger they turn to ushers, guards, officials and inflict on non-smokers. They $mokc management to sec that prohibitions 1 in theaters, offices, restaurants, on arc ooeyed, planes and trains, at meetings and For example, there is the woman almost everywhere else, often with• who recently cleared the air-and 1 out regard for "No Smoki!1( sign~-kept it dear-in a jury impaneling j, In an 'attempt to check tins mscns1-room. ,vhcn the lawyers were late . tivity, airlines and r:iilroads are now : in arriving, the clerk told the panel ! r~scrving more space for non-smok-I that h.: would relax the no-smoking 1 ing travelers. (The Penn Central , rule. The lady stood up and objected. I Railroad repons that during com• l She said ·she was there because the I muter rush ho~rs thcr~ are frequent-! law re uired her to be, and she , ly empty _scats 111 sm~kmg cars-and l didn't ,~ant to be maC:c miserable in standees m _no-smoking, c_ars.). the roccss. She "Ota bia hand from . I!1 \Y:-ishmgton,-smo..:mg is pro-the ~est of the p:ncl. N;body lit up. ~1bitcd •~1 both houses of Congres~. l It is not only fair but essential that m the Supreme Court :ind most I k b d fi th h fc d 1 . fc de 1 mit non-smo ·ers e protccte rom o er ot er c era courts, m e ra · 1 , fi I • · fc d· 1'I . S ri1 states peop es umcs. t 1s time or you, scums an 1 >ran~. 0-e . · the innocent bystander to assert ha\'c dusted off old fire-prevention . h O d I ' th laws forbidding smoking in theaters, ttr r~_/5: n~v; 1Jte lili Ore · courtrooms, buses, libr:iries and 01!e . ahons ili ca l · • , 1 hospitals; :ind many municipaliti~s f~.n:,~a.iok' as tut Id b mattcfi Pd•~~ have adopted e\'cn tougher orch-) · m_o mg s 0 ~ : con ,,ne nances. There are also numerous consenting :idults m pnvate. privately owned enterprises and non-governmental institutions which are now posting no-smoking signs. Still, the country has a long , way to go. . , What can you do to protect your-; · self? Quiet diplomacy often works: if someone next to you starts to light 1 up, ask if he'd mind refraining. "'rou I can help curb ~rooking in restau-l J J i li I l I l ·! ' l ': , ·~ i 1j ,! ,◄ t !