By Khalida Sarwari
A local coalition has awarded the cities of Saratoga and Campbell its highest marks in tobacco-control efforts among cities in Santa Clara County.
The “2013-2014 Community’s Health on Tobacco Report Card” was released on June 26 by the Tobacco Free Coalition of Santa Clara County and Community Advocate Teens of Today, in partnership with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, to monitor Santa Clara County cities’ tobacco-control policies and encourage enforcement efforts with the goal of ultimately eliminating youth tobacco use.
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.
Campbell and Saratoga each received an “A” grade. For Campbell, it was an improvement over last year’s “B” grade, and for Saratoga it was the second consecutive “A.” The county joined the “A” list, while the cities of Cupertino and Sunnyvale and the town of Los Gatos each received a “B.”
Campbell is one of four jurisdictions that have adopted a tobacco retail license ordinance in the past four years. Following in the county’s footsteps, Campbell implemented a tobacco retail license in 2012 that requires retailers to obtain an annual local license.
Campbell Mayor Rich Waterman said the “A” grade reflects the fruit of the city’s efforts in tightening policies related to smoking near restaurants and in parks, underage tobacco sales and retail advertising of tobacco products. Nevertheless, when considering policies related to tobacco control, Campbell council members are careful in striking a balance between protecting the rights of nonsmokers and smokers, Waterman said.
“You want to strike it right because smokers have some rights, so it’s a tradeoff of the rights of people who smoke and individuals who want to have a meal or walk around downtown without cigarette smoke being in their face,” he said.
Saratoga Mayor Emily Lo said she was pleased about the results of the report card, on which Saratoga fared far better than on the American Lung Association’s report released in January. “Our city getting an ‘A’ again just reinforces our commitment to tobacco compliance and preventing tobacco access to youth,” Lo said.
Earlier this year, Lo opined that the report card uses a more realistic scoring system and is consistent with the city’s existing regulations in comparison to the ALS report. On that report, Saratoga received an overall “D” mark for the fifth consecutive year based on the city’s policies related to smoke-free outdoor air, smoke-free housing and efforts to reduce the sale of tobacco products.
Passed in 2009, Saratoga’s tobacco ordinance requires retailers to obtain a conditional use permit and limits the density of retailers near each other, schools and parks. The following year, the city adopted a smoke-free recreational areas ordinance that bans the use of tobacco products in city parks and recreational areas.
Most of Saratoga’s tobacco control efforts are directed at preventing access to minors, with decoy operations conducted by the sheriff’s department as one such example.
The 2013-14 report appears to be the health department’s ninth and final one. Reg
Saratoga and Campbell are on the A-team for tobacco control effort
