By Khalida Sarwari
The city of Saratoga may have jumped two letter grades in the American Lung Association’s 2016 report card on tobacco control policies, but its work is not yet done, said Mayor Manny Cappello, who promised more changes are on the way.
“We’re making a very significant move in this direction,” Cappello said. “It’s a really serious effort to get an A grade–not just for the grade, but it’s about protecting [people] from secondhand smoke.”
The State of Tobacco Control report released on Feb. 3 gave Saratoga an overall C mark based on the city’s policies related to smoke-free outdoor air, smoke-free housing and efforts to reduce the sale of tobacco products, signifying an improvement, albeit a slight one, over the F and D grades it received in 2014 and 2015, respectively.
The report evaluated cities on smoke-free outdoor air, smoke-free housing and reducing sales of tobacco products. Saratoga earned a D in the first category, an F in the second and an A in the third. That last category is where the city saw the biggest improvement; in 2015 it received an F for its efforts in reducing the sale of tobacco products.
Cappello attributed that partly to a move by CVS, one of Saratoga’s biggest retailers, to no longer sell cigarettes and tobacco products at any of its stores.
The other reason, he said, can be traced to the city’s adoption of an ordinance last year establishing a tobacco retailer license that regulates e-cigarettes. What the ordinance did is require the seven Saratoga retailers that sell tobacco or tobacco products to obtain a special license to sell tobacco products, paraphernalia and electronic smoking devices.
“What it does,” said Cappello, “is it provides a revenue stream in order to pay for communications with the public on the hazards of smoking.”
Furthermore, the ordinance prohibits the use of self-service displays for tobacco products, paraphernalia or electronic smoking devices. Underage employees would no longer be permitted to sell these items to customers.
But the city’s work in this area isn’t yet complete, Cappello said. In June, the council will begin considering provisions related to housing and commercial districts. Specifically, it will address smoking in the common areas of multi-family dwellings, including apartment and condominium complexes, and in proximity to commercial establishments, such as the Village.
Currently, smoking is permissible outside of restaurants and stores and in outdoor dining areas in Saratoga, according to Cappello. By the end of the year, that may be a thing of the past as the council has agendized discussing a smoking ban within 20 feet of the entrance or back of commercial establishments, outdoor dining areas and outdoor work sites such as construction zones.
While the regulations pertaining to housing would focus on the common areas of multi-family complexes, that doesn’t mean that it will prohibit smoking inside individual units, said Cappello, adding, “we felt it was too much of a stretch” to impose such regulations on current tenants. But the council will consider banning smoking, he said, inside the units of new buildings and complexes.
Finally, the council will consider a measure to ban smoking at all outdoor events where children are likely to be present, such as the Witchy Walk-A-Bout or the Pet Parade, according to Cappello.
On a related note, the sale and cultivation of marijuana is prohibited in the city and it looks to stay that way.
Passing such regulations is always a balancing act, said Cappello.
“In a community like ours we do consider the rights of the individual who chooses to smoke and engage in that activity, but we want to protect those folks that are sort of the innocent bystanders that get affected by smoke,” he said. “We want to make sure that if you’re living in a multi-family dwelling or near retail you have the protections from secondhand smoke. It’s the right of those who don’t smoke and choose to lead a healthy lifestyle. That’s the real message we’re sending out relative to these regulations.”
Elsewhere, unincorporated Santa Clara County received an A on the American Lung Association’s report, while Campbell and San Jose received Bs. Cupertino, Los Gatos and Sunnyvale all received Ds.
