By Khalida Sarwari
A new report released Monday gives the cities of Saratoga, Milpitas and Mountain View the highest marks in tobacco control efforts among cities in Santa Clara County.
The “2009-2010 Community’s Health on Tobacco Report Card” was released by the Tobacco Free Coalition of Santa Clara County and Community Advocate Teens of Today, with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department to monitor Santa Clara County cities’ tobacco control policies and encourage enforcement efforts.
“Last year enforcement of illegal tobacco sales to minors was only conducted in four of our 13 targeted cities,” Dr. Roger Kennedy, chair of the Tobacco Free Coalition said. “This year, enforcement was conducted in 12 cities. The Tobacco Report Card has proven to be an effective tool in helping cities to take action.”
Grading was based on tobacco advertising and displays and preventing youth access to tobacco. Points were awarded for a high compliance rate with window advertising regulations, enforcement of underage tobacco sales laws and creation of policies requiring a tobacco retailer license.
The cities of Saratoga, Milpitas and Mountain View all received ‘A’ grades, whereas last year no cities achieved an ‘A.’
Saratoga was credited for adopting a conditional use permit policy restricting the location of tobacco outlets in proximity to schools and parks and other tobacco outlets.
Mountain View received praise for conducting decoy operations with 59 tobacco retailers in the city in which only three were selling tobacco to minors.
However, there is room for improvement in the county, especially regarding tobacco retail licensing policy. San Jose has taken an initiative to making tobacco retail licensing a priority with Councilwoman Nora Campos’s proposed Tobacco Retailer Permit Program, which Mayor Chuck Reed included in his June budget message.
Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager has also made tobacco retail licensing a priority.
The Santa Clara County Public Health Department was recently selected as one of 44 jurisdictions in the country to receive a Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The department will use the grant to decrease the prevalence of smoking in the community and conduct efforts to prevent teens from taking up smoking.