Public Health works with managers, tenants to create no-smoking
policies
All migrant housing in San Benito County will be smoke-free by
June 2010 thanks to work by public health staff and housing
managers to implement a no smoking policy inside the living spaces
and in outdoor common areas.
Since 2005, Carlos Lopez, a health educator with the San Benito
County Tobacco Education program, has been working with the
county-run migrant camp and private migrant camps to make the
housing a smoke-free environment. The policy will be implemented at
the last camps this year, helping the county to meet and exceed its
objective of making four of the 10 camps smoke-free by June
2010.
Public Health works with managers, tenants to create no-smoking policies
All migrant housing in San Benito County will be smoke-free by June 2010 thanks to work by public health staff and housing managers to implement a no smoking policy inside the living spaces and in outdoor common areas.
Since 2005, Carlos Lopez, a health educator with the San Benito County Tobacco Education program, has been working with the county-run migrant camp and private migrant camps to make the housing a smoke-free environment. The policy will be implemented at the last camps this year, helping the county to meet and exceed its objective of making four of the 10 camps smoke-free by June 2010.
“The first thing is the health concern,” said Lopez, of making the sites smoke-free. “It is a second-hand smoke-free environment for the families. They can prevent fires, too.”
Two residents at the Quintero Camp on San Juan Hollister Road said the policy was easy enough to implement since none of the current residents are smokers.
“We agree because when someone is smoking in the home it causes second-hand smoke and there might be kids playing,” said Omar Gutierrez, who has lived at the camp for five years, as Lopez translated his words from Spanish to English. “The houses can burn, too.”
Ivan Gutierrez, who has lived at the camp for seven years, said the residents have all respected the policy.
Tobacco Education staff chose the objective of implementing a smoke-free policy at the migrant camps after conducting a community assessment to see if there was an issue with smoking. According to Samela Perez with the health department, the migrant camps are a unique blend of work and living space, so the objective came on the heels of a law that banned smoking in the work place.
“Our focus was to raise the awareness of second-hand smoke and how it affects the entire family,” said Perez, the public information officer for the San Benito County Public Health Department. “But also from a logistical stand point, many of these people work with food products and it’s just a cleaner, healthier environment for the workers to live in.”
At the San Juan Hollister Road site, a metal sign announces in English and Spanish that the site is a smoke-free place. It states that residents should smoke at least 20 feet away from buildings and outdoor common areas.
When the policy was adopted at the various migrant housing sites, Lopez said the managers had the tenants sign a form that they understood the no-smoking policy. New residents that move in are also required to sign the forms.
“Initially, when we attempted to establish this, we thought it was going to be very difficult,” Perez said. “We were amazed at how successful it has been.”
She said that at some of the migrant centers, the tenants even voted to implement the policy.
Tony Diaz, the manager of the San Benito Labor Camp on Southside Road, said he was surprised at how easy the policy was to implement, too.
“At first I was thinking there would be a fight for sure,” he said. “I thought someone was not going to like it.”
But he said most of the smokers at the camp, which is open to adult men and women, have been respectful of the new policy.
“Everyone is pretty happy,” he said. “Before we put up the signs, people had a tendency to smoke in the room and there are two or three people living in the same room. Now with the signs up, they really don’t have to tell anyone.”
Once in a while someone will light up near the building and the other residents have politely asked them to move away.
“We do have a lot of open space here so if they really want to smoke, they can go near the fence,” Diaz said.
Perez said staff members hope their program will be a model for other counties.
“We hope that other counties will adopt similar policies,” she said. “The state Tobacco Control Section has commended the Tobacco Education program for being proactive and taking on this objective.”
San Benito County will be one of the first California counties to successful implement the policy at all migrant housing sites.
The policy is self-enforced, meaning that the managers and tenants have taken it upon themselves to ask people who smoke to put out the cigarette or move into a designated smoking area. Staff members from the Tobacco Education program do follow up with the managers and tenants by phone or in person, and said no one has reported any major challenges to the policy.
“Once they are knowledgeable that this affects the whole family, people don’t want to put their family in harm’s way,” Perez said. “People want to do the right thing for their family.”
The camps that have accepted the smoke-free policy include the San Benito County Migrant Housing Center; the San Benito Labor Camp; the four Quintero Camps, including the housing on San Juan Hollister Road, where the Gutierrez’ live; B&R Farms; Hernandez Labor Inc; Lico & Greco Farm; and Thomas Orchards Camp.
Future objectives for the Tobacco Education program staff include working to make all daycares in San Benito County a smoke-free environment and working at local schools to teach about the negative effects of tobacco.
