§ 8.08.010. Findings of fact and purpose.

A.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has classified environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as one of only twelve Class-A carcinogens, a substance known to cause cancer in humans for which there is no safe level of exposure. Other Class-A carcinogens include benzene, radon and asbestos;

B.

Numerous scientific studies have found that ETS is a major contributor to indoor air pollution;

C.

Reliable scientific studies, including studies by the Surgeon General of the United States and studies commissioned, assessed and accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have shown that breathing ETS is a significant health hazard to nonsmokers; particularly to children and teens, elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease;

D.

Reliable scientific studies have shown that ETS is the third leading cause of preventable disease and death in the U.S., behind only active smoking and alcohol;

E.

Within minutes short term exposure to ETS may cause the human body to experience over-contraction of the heart, thickening of the blood and arteries, increased chance of heart attack or stroke, depression of the immune system, and cell mutations from the mutagens and carcinogens in tobacco smoke;

F.

Health hazards induced by exposure to ETS include lung and other forms of cancer, respiratory infection, decreased respiratory function, decreased exercise tolerance, broncho-constriction and broncho-spasm, and that the most common cause of premature death from ETS is heart disease;

G.

Reliable scientific studies assessed and accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have found that ETS causes between two thousand three hundred and three thousand three hundred lung cancer deaths annually and is a leading cause of premature death and disability among non-smokers;

H.

Reliable scientific studies assessed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have found that exposure to ETS is responsible for thirty-seven thousand heart disease deaths and another twelve thousand three hundred deaths due to cervical cancer and other cancers each year;

I.

Reliable scientific studies have found that the cancer mortality from ETS alone exceeds the combined mortality from all regulated environmental carcinogens, and while ETS is the number one cause of environmental cancer, it is essentially unregulated;

J.

Non-smokers with allergies, respiratory diseases and those who suffer other ill effects of breathing ETS may experience a loss of job productivity or may be forced to take periodic sick leave because of adverse reactions to same;

K.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that exposure to ETS in the workplace is about four times the typical household exposure;

L.

Persons, particularly employees, have a right to a smoke-free environment if they desire;

M.

Reliable scientific studies assessed and accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have found the following:

1.

Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is responsible for between one hundred fifty thousand and three hundred thousand serious respiratory ailments, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, and other respiratory illnesses, each year in young children, especially infants;

2.

Between seven thousand five hundred and fifteen thousand cases of respiratory ailments caused by ETS are serious enough for the child to be hospitalized;

3.

Exposure to ETS causes or exacerbates asthmatic symptoms in many of the country's two to six million asthmatic children;

4.

Exposure to ETS causes between eight thousand and twenty-five thousand additional asthma cases a year among young children;

5.

ETS causes increased frequency of cough and wheezing in children;

6.

ETS causes reduced lung function and lung growth in children; and

7.

ETS causes increased rates of chronic ear infections in children;

N.

A reliable scientific study on ETS exposure in restaurants conducted by the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, San Francisco Preventive Medicine Residency Program found that:

1.

Restaurant ETS exposure is about three to five times higher than typical workplace exposure;

2.

Restaurant employees' ETS exposure is about eight to twenty times higher than ETS exposure in the home;

3.

The most heavily exposed restaurant workers inhale the benzo(a)pyrene equivalent of actively smoking one and one-half to two packs of cigarettes per day;

4.

ETS in restaurant air causes gene mutation at a rate of ten to one hundred times higher than previously measured urban outdoor and indoor air;

5.

The mutagenic potency of ETS in restaurant air is five to ten times that of "high risk" industrial workplace air;

6.

Heavily ETS-exposed restaurant workers have levels of carcinogens in their blood two to three times higher than persons with typical ETS exposure, and have higher levels of mutagenicity in their urine; and

7.

Restaurant employees are, therefore, the occupational group most heavily exposed to ETS and most likely to suffer adverse health effects due to ETS exposure;

O.

In examining the health effects of ETS exposure in restaurants, the study referenced in subparagraph N above found that:

1.

In California, waitresses have the highest mortality of any female occupational group and compared to all other women, they have almost four times the expected lung cancer mortality rate and two and one-half times the expected heart disease mortality rate;

2.

Preliminary evidence which suggests that waiters and waitresses have about a fifty percent to ninety percent increased risk of lung cancer that is most likely attributable to restaurant ETS exposure thus, their exposure to ETS at work makes restaurant workers one and one-half to two times as likely to die from lung cancer as they would otherwise be; and

3.

Although not studied, the morbidity and mortality of restaurant workers from heart disease attributable to restaurant ETS exposure is expected to be even more significant than for lung cancer;

P.

A reliable scientific study conducted by the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco on the effects of local ordinances requiring one hundred percent smoke-free restaurants, which used sales tax revenue data from the California State Board of Equalization, found that such ordinances:

1.

Had no significant effect on total restaurant sales in any community;

2.

Resulted in a small but statistically significant increase of thirteen percent to fourteen percent in total retail sales that went to restaurants;

3.

Had no significant effect on the ratio of restaurant sales in communities with such an ordinance compared with restaurant sales in matched control communities which had no such ordinance; and

4.

Had similar effects on all categories of restaurants, defined by the kind of alcoholic beverages (if any) served;

Q.

The study referenced in subparagraph P above found no evidence to support the common claim, first made in Beverly Hills, that one hundred percent smoke-free restaurant ordinances reduce business by thirty percent. The overall conclusion based on the data analyzed in the study is that one hundred percent smoke-free restaurant ordinances do not adversely affect restaurant sales within a community or lead to a shift in patronage to restaurants in communities with no such ordinances. If anything, one hundred percent smoke-free restaurant ordinances make restaurants more competitive for retaining sales dollars;

R.

Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of fires, and cigarette and cigar burns and ash stains on merchandise and fixtures cause economic losses to businesses;

S.

Substantial scientific evidence exists that the direct use of tobacco products causes cancer, heart disease, and various other medical diseases. The Surgeon General of the U.S. has found that tobacco-caused diseases are the leading cause of premature, preventable death and disability in the U.S.;

T.

The National Centers for Disease Control have found that at least four hundred thirty-four thousand Americans die each year from tobacco-caused diseases. The Surgeon General of the U.S. and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have found that a majority of those Americans who die of tobacco-caused diseases became addicted to nicotine in tobacco products as adolescents before the age of legal consent;

U.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse has concluded that the nicotine in tobacco products is a powerful addictive drug and identifies nicotine addiction as the most widespread example of drug dependence in the U.S.;

V.

The Surgeon General of the U.S. has found that nicotine in tobacco products is as addictive as cocaine and heroin;

W.

Recent scientific studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that tobacco companies target children and teens with cigarette advertising and promotion, and that this advertising and promotion encourages young people to smoke cigarettes; and

X.

The American Medical Association, former U.S. Surgeon Generals C. Everett Koop, Antonio Nevello, and former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis Sullivan have publicly denounced the tobacco industry for targeting children and teens in its advertising and promotions and have called for local, state and federal action to prevent the tobacco industry from targeting youth.

Y.

Accordingly, the Napa County Board of Supervisors finds and declares that the purposes of this chapter are:

1.

To protect public health, safety and general welfare; and

2.

To guarantee the right of nonsmokers, especially children, to breathe tobacco smoke-free air, and to recognize that the need to breathe tobacco smoke-free air has priority over the desire to smoke;

3.

To reduce addiction to tobacco products, especially by children and teenagers.

Z.

The Napa County board of supervisors further finds it is within its basic police power to implement and enforce the provisions of this chapter.

(Ord. 1104 § 4, 1996; Ord. 1063 § 2 (part), 1994: prior code § 5150)