The Los Angeles City Council members unanimously agreed on Wednesday to
ban smoking in all public areas.
By a 13-0 vote, the council proposed an ordinance which would
impose a comprehensive ban on smoking in "all public areas and common areas where people congregate, including, but not limited to, indoor and outdoor businesses, hotels, parks, apartment common areas, restaurants and bars, and beaches", council members said.
The council has directed its attorneys to make legal preparations to implement the ordinance, said Councilman Bernard Parks.
The proposed ordinance would be ready for final approval sometime next year, said Parks.
He said the idea is not to
ban smoking, but regulate where it can be done.
"I think you go down a path that you can't recover from (when you begin) talking about
banning smoking because I think that's an individual decision, but we can protect people who have no desire to smell smoke," Parks said.
"We need to implement legislation to regulate cigarette smoking by limiting it to specific places where there is no expectation of involuntary contact with people -- wherever people congregate or there is an expectation of people being present, ( then)
smoking should be prohibited," he said.
Parks said smoking is a voluntary addiction and not a right protected by the Constitution, "yet secondhand smoke harms an involuntary population which has a right to clean air and a clean environment and which is protected by many public health laws." - PNA
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Topic: LA to Ban Smoking in All Public Places (Read 915 times)