The American Lung Association in California recently graded Santa Clara County cities on their toughness on tobacco, and Los Altos and Los Altos Hills each received an F. But the study isn’t perfect, and Los Altos Hills officials aren’t happy with their town’s failing grade.
“This survey is outrageously incorrect,” Los Altos Hills City Manager Carl Cahill said. “We actually should have gotten an A grade in two of the three categories since we completely prohibit the types of establishments where one might smoke or purchase tobacco products.”
The Jan. 12 report, “The State of Tobacco Control,” which examined tobacco ordinances in place Jan. 2 in 373 cities, awarded zero points to the town from a rubric of 15 items in three categories. The report examined cities’ municipal codes for laws banning tobacco stores and smoking in places like recreation areas, sidewalks and homes. The report assigned Fs to 67 percent of the included cities.
“In the first category (Smokefree Outdoor Air Grade, which studied prohibition in various outdoor areas), we should have gotten at least a B grade since, by ordinance, we prohibit smoking at Byrne Preserve and the Westwind Barn by virtue of the fact that they are in high fire danger areas,” Cahill said.
Serena Chan, an 18-year employee of the American Lung Association, admitted the report is flawed in that it’s not tailored for small, rural towns like Los Altos Hills.
“The only thing we’re able to do is look through cities’ municipal codes and if we can’t find smoking ordinances in the code, we can’t give a grade for it,” Chan said.
The Los Altos Hills municipal code states, “No person shall light, ignite or otherwise set fire to or smoke any tobacco, cigarette, pipe or cigar in or upon any hazardous fire area.”
Chan said if she were to regrade the town, she would probably give them two out of four points in the “Smokefree Outdoor Air Grade” category, because the code doesn’t completely ban smoking in recreation areas – just where it’s a fire hazard. The town could have received an A overall with a specificaly tailored report, she said.
“A lot of times folks feel wrongly graded,” Chan said. “It’s not a perfect study.”
Ideally, she said, the rubric would exclude certain categories that wouldn’t apply to Los Altos Hills. There are no restaurants in the town, for instance, so instead of receiving zero for that category, it wouldn’t be factored in.
Chan said the purpose of the report is to generate awareness to secondhand smoke.
As for Los Altos’ F, Mayor David Casas said the report was beneficial in generating awareness, but was lacking in providing solutions.
He said Los Altos could be tougher on smoking ordinances if residents perceived it as more of a problem. Los Altos’ code doesn’t permit smoking in all public indoor areas, but it doesn’t address most outdoor areas, including parks.
“I think we have a good balance between personal rights and enjoyment of your property,” Casas said. “Prohibition of smoking has not been brought up” at any council meetings for consideration.
Albany, Calabasas, Richmond and Glendale were the only cities to earn As.