The city of San Diego and several other cities in San Diego County received poor grades in the American Lung Association’s 2014 State of Tobacco Control report meant to control tobacco smoking boundaries.
The city of San Diego received a D overall. The cities of La Mesa and Lemon Grove, each within four miles of San Diego State campus, both received an F grade.
On Jan. 1, a campus-wide smoking ban went into effect at SDSU. While the school recently took this step to control tobacco smoking within campus boundaries, the American Lung Association reported that parts of San Diego County must still take steps toward controlling tobacco.
“SDSU is jumping onboard with the movement to ban smoking from public places,” psychology sophomore Maegan Morrow said. “It improves our air quality and the image of campus when there aren’t cigarette butts and ash trays around.”
The city of San Diego was graded in three categories: smoke-free outdoor areas, smoke-free multi-family housing and reducing sales of tobacco products. Despite receiving a B in reducing tobacco sales, San Diego averaged a D overall after getting a D in smoke-free outdoor areas and an F in smoke-free multifamily homes for 2014.
“To improve its overall grade, San Diego will need to extend smoke-free protections to additional outdoor areas such as outdoor dining patios, entryways, and public events; enact the smoker-free housing ordinance that has been languishing in committee for several years; and, strengthen its tobacco retail licensing law,” Regional Director of Programs and Advocacy for the American Lung Association in California Debra Kelley said.
The American Lung Association gave California an F in tobacco control. To calculate each state’s grade, the American Lung Association took into account each state’s tobacco prevention, cessation coverage, cigarette tax and smoke-free air.
“California hasn’t raised their (its) cigarette tax in a long time and that is one of the most effective ways of reducing consumption,” tobacco researcher and SDSU professor of epidemiology and biostatistics Thomas Novotny said. “A higher cigarette tax would also help fund the control of tobacco efforts.”
The only states to receive an A overall grade were Alaska and North Dakota. 40 of the 50 states received a failing grade from the American Lung Association’s 2014 report.
“One of the most important ways to counteract the tobacco industry’s marketing efforts to young adults is to establish smoke-free policies where they live, study, work, and play, and to make tobacco products less accessible,” said Kelley. “The Lung Association applauds San Diego State University for making its campus smoke-free and for eliminating the sale of tobacco products on campus.”
The ban prohibits smoking anywhere on campus, even in areas that were previously designated smoking areas. The ban made smoking offenses on campus punishable by a fine.
“It’s more pleasant to have a campus where you don’t have to inhale anything you don’t want to,” accounting sophomore Zach Worthen said. “It will also encourage more people to stop smoking.”
SDSU’s Graduate School of Public Health holds an annual cigarette butt cleanup each Earth Day. Even with the smoking ban, a 2014 cleanup is planned to measure the effects of the campus-wide ban.
“I think that San Diego State has the ability to show some good results from the smoking ban,” Novotny said. “It will be an interesting way to evaluate how the ban has been in getting people not to throw their butts on campus and smoke where they shouldn’t be smoking.”
Photo by Jimmy Thibault, Staff Photographer
