Lung Association’s annual ‘report card’ reflects mixed success in protecting residents from secondhand smoke
The American Lung Association just released its annual “State of Tobacco Control” report, with grades assigned to states on their efforts to increase the health of their citizens by controlling the use and sale of tobacco.
California leads the way with its efforts at tobacco control. Sonoma County received an A and Healdsburg’s overall grade was a B.
Healdsburg earned an A in reducing sales of tobacco, and a B for its smoke free outdoor air but was given a D for smoke-free housing.
Healdsburg Mayor Brigette Mansell said, “My reaction to a “D” for smoke-free housing is disappointment, mainly due to the secondhand smoke children inhale,” said Mansell. “I am interested in improving in this area.”
“I am fully aware that we have come a long way in terms of protecting non-smokers’ rights,” said Mansell. The mayor grew up the child of “two smoking parents, in our home and on long car rides,” said Mansell. “I recall my five siblings complaining about the smoke and feeling nauseous.”
“As a 35-year active public high school English teacher, I have read students’ essays and listened to students discuss and deliver speeches about their parents’ smoking,” said Mansell.
“Housing, especially government-subsidized housing may be a start in terms of regulating smoking,” she added.
Last year’s mayor and council member Shaun McCaffery echoed the mayor’s words, “I believe that the grades we have received indicate progress but also show that there is more work to be done.”
“First of all I have to recognize Dr. David Anderson, who championed the effort that led the Healdsburg City Council to vote to be the first city in California to increase the age of tobacco products to 21,” said McCaffery. “Further efforts by Assemblymember Jim Wood and Senator Mike McGuire, along with other state lawmakers applied this concept to the entire state.”
“It could be argued that Healdsburg was instrumental in making this happen,” said McCaffery. “That being said, we have more work to do in the areas of common housing as well as public and semi-public spaces. Smoking has been brought up in council conversations in 2017 and I will be bringing this up at our goal-setting session in March. If desired progress on this subject is shared by a majority of the council, city staff will bring forth ordinances for adoption in 2018 to improve and expand Healdsburg as a smoke free environment.”
Lindsey Freitas is the Senior Director of Tobacco Control with the American Lung Association in California. Freitas noted that, “Healdsburg has a strong policy that requires local retailers to obtain a local tobacco retail license and that policy also applies to retailers that sell electronic cigarettes, which is a really important thing, and they also ban the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies.” She explained that this was so that those buying products that help one quit smoking would not be tempted by tobacco products in the same shop.
Freitas further explained that, “Big tobacco uses e-cigarettes to get teens hooked on tobacco products. Youth usage rates for electronic cigarettes has skyrocketed and recent studies have found that teens who use e-cigarettes are far more likely to begin using traditional tobacco products.”
“Our State of Tobacco report is actually two reports,” said Freitas. “Our national report grades all 50 states and the District of Columbia on tobacco control.”
“This year California received the best grades in the country and that’s because we’ve improved our grade in two key areas,” said Freitas. “We’ve increased our tobacco tax grade to an A and we’ve increased our access to cessation to a C.”
“Both of those are tied to the implementation of Proposition 56, which was approved by the voters in November of 2016 and went into effect in April of 2017,” said Freitas. “This raised important funds for tobacco prevention and cessation programs.”
“This is a direct benefit to the people in California that are being able to quit smoking,” explained Freitas. “They’re accessing these programs. It’s a really great thing. Because of that we’re going to see a drop in smoking.”
“The second part of this report is our local grades report, where we grade every city and county in California on their local tobacco control policies,” said Freitas. “These are really areas where they have gone further than the state policy. And where local communities are able to impact the health in their local communities.”
“So, we look at smoke-free outdoor air, really areas where people congregate with their families, like parks and outdoor dining and big downtown areas and things like that.” explained Freitas.
“We also look at smoke-free housing, which is looking at whether or not a community has prohibited the use of tobacco within their multi-unit housing, such as apartments and condominiums,” Freitas said.
“The third section is reducing sales of tobacco products to minors and what we’re looking at there is whether or not a local community has adopted a local license for retailers to sell tobacco,” said Freitas. “That’s been a really effective tool at lowering the amount of youths that are able to purchase tobacco illegally.”
The California Department of Public Health gave a statement to the Tribune about California leading the country in the American Lung Association report. “This recognition is an honor that reflects some of the strongest policies in the nation to diminish the harms caused by tobacco use and secondhand smoke. These results are not by chance, and reflect nearly three decades of hard work and partnership between state and local agencies. Moving forward, the California Department of Public Health intends to increase its efforts to prevent and reduce tobacco use among Californians who have the highest rates of tobacco use and the least protection.”
Mayor Mansell added, “As a public policy maker and one who honors our county’s Health Action report, I will bring this subject forward on the dais. It is worthy of our attention.”
