The City of Laguna Beach will consider an ordinance at their Sept. 21 council meeting that could restrict the sale of vape and tobacco products.
Brought forward by Councilmember George Weiss, the resolution, if voted for by the majority of council members would direct city staff to research and analyze the issue, draft an ordinance for the ban, and then reviewed by the council at a future meeting.
According to the agenda item, there are a list of benefits as a result of the ban, including decreasing the likelihood of teens starting to vape or smoke, lessening the impact of secondhand smoke, reducing cigarette butts along beaches, streets, and trails, lessening fire risk, and making Laguna Beach a healthier community.
This is not the first time the city has made efforts against smoking products before. Smoking in public areas was banned in 2017. In 2019, they considered banning all flavored vape and tobacco products in response to flavored products becoming more popular with teenagers compared to standard tobacco.
The agenda also lists Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics about tobacco, citing more than 16 million Americans live with a disease caused by smoking, at least 30 million Americans live with a serious smoking-related illness, and that second-hand smoke, which many people are involuntarily exposed to in public, contains more than 7,000 chemicals, of which hundreds are toxic and 70 of them can cause cancer.
If passed, the smoking ban would be one of the strictest in Southern California, although Weiss suggested there would be exceptions for vape and tobacco sales within hotels, with other exemptions to be considered as well.
