It smells, it’s highly addictive, and it’s bad for your
health
– but millions of Americans do it anyway.
San Benito County – It smells, it’s highly addictive, and it’s bad for your health – but millions of Americans do it anyway.
Since a new law was passed in January mandating people who smoke do it at least 20 feet away from state, city, or county buildings, members of the San Benito County Tobacco Education Program are working to educate the community about the new law and make sure it’s being enforced.
The bill amended a law that prohibited people from smoking within five feet of a public building, which also includes colleges and universities, said health educator Mike Torres.
Torres and other members of the Tobacco Education Program are working on putting up signs around public buildings in the community, warning people they must smoke 20 feet away from any entrance or exit.
“I believe it’s important for people working in buildings who don’t smoke, and as they walk in, that they’re not fighting people smoking within five feet of an entrance,” Torres said. “So they can enter a building without going through a cloud of smoke.”
While police won’t be enforcing the law because it’s low on law enforcement’s priority list, Torres said, he hopes compliance will come by posting signs and moving ash trays away from entrances and exits.
“Once we get out and educate the community, hopefully it will be self-enforced,” he said.
San Benito County Marshall Robert Scattini, who’s office is located at the Superior Court, said when court is in session there are always people smoking in front of the court house, but most of them already abide by the 20-foot law.
“I think it’s a damn good law,” he said. “A lot of people are bothered by cigarette smoke – they don’t like breathing somebody else’s second-hand smoke.”
Educating the community about the new law is part of four new objectives the Tobacco Education Program will be working on thanks to a three-year grant it received from Proposition 99.
Prop 99 is a tobacco tax where 25 cents of purchased tobacco products goes to funding tobacco programs around the nation.
Along with the new law, members of the tobacco program will be making sure all bars are in compliance with the no smoking law and that there are areas in low-income apartment buildings that are smoke-free, Torres said. They will also be pushing for a new law that mandates retail merchants have a tobacco license similar to an alcohol license so that they will have to pay a yearly fee to sell tobacco products, he said.
