Smoking to be banned at state parks and beaches

In an effort to reduce litter, wildfire risk and ocean pollution from cigarette butts, smoking will be banned on all of California’s state beaches and in state parks under a new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Starting Jan. 1, it will be illegal to smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes, vaping devices “or any other lighted or heated tobacco or plant product intended for inhalation” on any state beach or in any state park in California. Violators face fines of $25.

Newsom signed the measure, SB 8, by state Sen. Steve Glazer, D-orinda, late Friday.

“This bill will provide a cleaner, safer and healthier environment for people, fish and wildlife,” Glazer said Saturday morning.

“Cigarettes are one of the biggest polluters on our beaches,” he added. “They harm people through secondhand smoke and kill fish, which are affected by the tainted trash. Many forest fires have been caused by discarded cigarettes, and this bill can help there too.”

The state Department of Parks and Recreation will be required to put up nosmoking signs at beaches and parks. It owns 340 miles of shoreline — about one third of the entire California coastline — and operates 280 park units that cover 1.4 million acres.

According to data compiled by the California Coastal Commission, which sponsors the annual California Coastal Cleanup, cigarette butts are the most numerous pieces of litter that volunteers find every year during the event.

Since 1989, when detailed records began, 7.5 million cigarette butts have been col

KARL MONDON — STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Sisi Lu takes a photograph of her 7-month-old daughter, Gemma, at the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy’s 24th annual Pumpkins in the Park at Discovery Meadow in San Jose on Saturday.