Smoking ban bills sent to Brown
SACRAMENTO — Amid concerns over health effects and wildfires, smoking and using electronic cigarettes would be outlawed at some public college campuses and California’s 270 state parks and beaches under bills sent by state lawmakers to the governor Tuesday.
Under one bill, among several anti-tobacco measures the governor is considering this year, smoking would be banned on campuses of the California State University and California Community Colleges systems beginning in 2018.
“We need to promote a safe and healthy environment for the campus staff, students and faculty,” said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who introduced the measure. “This bill helps address the harmful health effects that come with smoking and secondhand smoke on our college campuses.”
The bill follows the model set by the semiautonomous University of California system, which adopted a tobacco-free policy that took effect in 2014. The Cal State system is nearing completion of a smoking policy, but the practice is already banned at Cal State Fullerton.
The community college chancellor’s office says 18 of the 72 community college districts, with 37 campuses, already have smoke-free policies.
The bill calls for fining violators $25 for the first offense and up to $100 for the third and additional offenses, with the money going to anti-smoking education and cessation programs.
Another bill, SB 1333, creates a fine of up to $250 for those caught vaping or smoking a cigar or cigarette, or disposing of the remains of a cigarette, on a state beach or park.
“SB 1333 will make our state parks and beaches cleaner and safer by reducing cigarette and tobacco litter, curtailing exposure to secondhand smoke and limiting the threat of park fires,” Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego) told his Senate colleagues Tuesday before they voted 26 to 10 to approve the bill.
The bill is backed by the California State Firefighters Assn., the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Sierra Club Sacramento and the Surfrider Foundation.
It was amended from Block’s original proposal to include a provision allowing the director of the state Department of Parks and Recreation to designate small areas in parks where smoking would be allowed.