Concord To Be Honored For Its Tough Secondhand Smoke Policies

News submitted from the Contra Costa Tobacco Prevention Coalition:

The Contra Costa County Tobacco Prevention Coalition is presenting awards to six Contra Costa cities for protecting public health through the adoption of strong secondhand smoke laws.

Recipients of the “Award for Outstanding Contribution to Tobacco Prevention” include Concord, El Cerrito, Lafayette, San Ramon and Walnut Creek.

“As we mark Tobacco Prevention Coalition’s 30th year, we wanted to acknowledge cities that have adopted strong secondhand smoke protections laws since our last anniversary celebration five years ago”, said Mary Jaccodine, Coalition Co-Chair.

Coalition members will be presenting the awards at city council meetings over the next month.

Concord was the first community in the county to regulate electronic smoking devices like e-cigarettes when it adopted a smokefree downtown policy in 2012.

El Cerrito (in 2014) and Walnut Creek (2013) adopted very strong policies that provide protections in public outdoor areas like outdoor dining, parks and public doorways as well 100% smoke-free multi-unit housing.

Lafayette (2013), Oakley (2014) and San Ramon (2013) adopted policies that prohibit smoking in most public outdoor areas and common areas of multi-unit housing, with Oakley taking an extra step to ban smoking in all new multi-unit housing units built after the ordinance adoption date.

El Cerrito, Oakley and Walnut Creek prohibit the use of electronic smoking devices where smoking is prohibited.

“In 2008, only unincorporated Contra Costa had a comprehensive secondhand smoke law.Since then, 10 communities in our county have adopted comprehensive laws and a number of other cities have taken great steps to reduce secondhand smoke exposure in multi-unit housing,” said Jaccodine.

The Tobacco Prevention Coalition, which began in 1984, was instrumental in helping Contra Costa County become the first multi-jurisdictional area in the nation to adopt laws to protect workers from secondhand smoke.

Since then, the adult smoking rate in Contra Costa County has dropped 60%.

“We are proud of the considerable progress we have made, but there is still work to be done,” said Emily Justice, Coalition Co-Chair. “Nearly half of our communities still do not have outdoor or multi-unit housing secondhand smoke protections. Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death and disability in our county, costing Contra Costans $334 million dollars in healthcare costs and resulting in almost 7,000 deaths annually.”

For more information about the Tobacco Prevention Coalition, call the Tobacco Prevention Project at 925-313-6216.

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