Sec. 32-2. - Findings and purpose.

(a)

Findings. The board of supervisors of the county does find that:

(1)

Studies have shown tobacco smoke is a major contributor to air pollution and is detrimental to nonsmokers' health, welfare and comfort, especially to elderly people, children, individuals with cardiovascular disease, impaired respiratory function, or allergies, and those who suffer ill effects of breathing secondhand smoke may experience a loss of job productivity or may be forced to take periodic sick leave because of reactions to secondhand smoke.

(2)

Scientific studies have concluded that tobacco use causes chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus and mouth.

(3)

In 2007, the World Health Organization estimated that by 2030, tobacco will account for 8.3 million deaths per year, will kill fifty (50) percent more people in 2015 than HIV/AIDS, and will be responsible for ten (10) percent of all deaths worldwide.

(4)

In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than four hundred forty thousand (440,000) people die in the United States from tobacco-related diseases every year, making it the nation's leading cause of preventable death.

(5)

The United States Surgeon General has concluded that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke and neither separating smokers from nonsmokers nor installing ventilation systems eliminates exposure to secondhand smoke.

(6)

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found secondhand smoke to be a risk to public health, and has classified secondhand smoke as a group A carcinogen, the most dangerous class of carcinogen.

(7)

The California Air Resources Control Board has identified secondhand smoke as a toxic air contaminant.

(8)

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has included secondhand smoke on the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive harm.

(9)

Each year, primarily because of exposure to secondhand smoke, approximately three thousand (3,000) non-smokers in the United States die of lung cancer and more than forty-six thousand (46,000) die of heart disease.

(10)

Exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of coronary heart disease by approximately thirty (30) percent.

(11)

Secondhand smoke exposure elevates the risks of low birth weight and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome for infants of mothers who smoke.

(12)

Secondhand smoke exposure causes as many as three hundred thousand (300,000) children in the United States to suffer from lower respiratory tract infections each year, exacerbates childhood asthma, and increases the prevalence of fluid in the middle ear, a sign of chronic middle ear disease.

(13)

In 2008, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that the total annual economic burden of smoking in the United States was approximately $193 billion.

(14)

From 2001 to 2004, average annual health care expenditures attributable to smoking in the United States were approximately $96 billion.

(15)

In 2004, the estimated medical and economic costs to non-smokers suffering from lung cancer or heart disease caused by secondhand smoke totaled approximately $6 billion in the United States.

(16)

In 2004 alone, the total adult health-related cost of smoking in California was estimated to be five hundred dollars ($500.00) per resident or three thousand four hundred dollars ($3,400.00) per smoker, for a total of nearly $18.1 billion in smoking-related costs for the year.

(17)

According to one study, California's Tobacco Control Program has saved the state and its residents approximately $86 billion in health care expenditures between the program's inception in 1989 and 2004, with savings growing over time.

(18)

A survey conducted by the Tobacco Control Program in December 2010 revealed that Sonoma County had the highest smoking rate in the Bay Area, indicating that sixteen and four-tenths (16.4) percent of Sonoma County residents smoke.

(19)

With certain exceptions, state law prohibits smoking inside an enclosed place of employment.

(20)

State law prohibits public school students from smoking or using tobacco products while on campus, while attending school-sponsored activities, or while under the supervision or control of school district employees.

(21)

State law prohibits smoking in playground and tot lots and within twenty (20) feet of the main entrances and exits of public buildings while expressly authorizing local communities to enact additional restrictions.

Therefore the board of supervisors finds it in the public interest to (1) protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting or limiting smoking in public places as hereinafter set forth; and (2) to strike a reasonable balance between the need of persons who smoke and the need of non-smokers to breathe smoke-free air, and to recognize that, where those needs conflict, the need to breathe smoke-free air has priority.

(b)

Purpose. The purpose of this chapter shall be to protect the public against the health hazards and harmful effects of exposure to smoking and secondhand smoke.

(Ord. No. 5953, § I, 10-4-2011.)