A. The city council finds and declares as follows:
1. Numerous studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution;
2. Reliable studies have shown that breathing secondhand smoke and vapor is a significant health hazard for certain population groups, including elderly people, individuals with cardiovascular disease, and individuals with impaired respiratory function, including asthmatics and those with obstructive airway disease;
3. Health hazards induced by breathing secondhand smoke and vapor include lung cancer, respiratory infection, decreased exercise tolerance, decreased respiratory function, bronchoconstriction, and bronchospasm;
4. Nonsmokers with allergies, respiratory diseases and those who suffer other ill effects of breathing secondhand smoke and vapor may experience a loss of job productivity or may be forced to take periodic sick leave because of adverse reactions to same;
5. Numerous studies have shown that a majority of both nonsmokers and smokers desire to have restrictions on smoking in public places and places of employment; and
6. Smoking is a documented cause of fires, and cigarette and cigar burns and ash stains on merchandise and fixtures cause economic losses to businesses.
7. Use of electronic smoking devices has increased significantly in recent years among both youths and adults.
8. Existing studies on electronic smoking devices’ vapor emission and cartridge contents have found a number of dangerous substances including chemicals know to the State of California to cause cancer such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, lead, nickel and chromium; inconsistent labeling of nicotine levels in electronic smoking device products; and other substances that have been linked to negative health effects such as skin, eye and respiratory irritation, neurological effects, damage to reproductive systems and premature death from heart attacks and strokes.
9. The use of electronic smoking devices in smoke free locations threatens to undermine compliance with smoking regulations and reverse the progress that has been made in establishing a social norm that smoking is not permitted in public places and places of employment.
B. Accordingly, the city council finds and declares that the purposes of this chapter are:
1. To protect the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places except in designated smoking areas, and by regulating smoking in places of employment; and
2. To strike a reasonable balance between the needs of smokers and the need of nonsmokers to breathe smoke-free air, and to recognize that, where these needs conflict, the need to breathe smoke-free air shall have priority.
3. To facilitate uniform and consistent enforcement of smoke-free air laws.
4. To reduce the potential for re- normalizing smoking in public places and places of employment.
5. To reduce the potential for children to associate the use of electronic smoking devices witha normative or healthy lifestyle.
(Ord. 515 § 1, 2016: Ord. 373 § 2, 2006)