Smokers Pushed Farther Back
By Corey Lyons
Contra Costa Newspapers
Jan. 5, 2004
The new buffer for puffers promises to make 2004 another tough year for cigarette smokers.
A new state law that went into effect Jan. 1 expands the no-smoking zone around public buildings from five feet to 20 feet.
The purpose is to clear the air around entry and exit points at city, county and state-owned buildings. Secondhand smoke is blamed for killing 4,700 Californians each year.
Smokers are really feeling the squeeze. They are an increasingly isolated population, forced to light up in designated areas.
"It's just terrible. It never ends," said Corinne Concannon, indulging in a cigarette-and-coffee break Saturday outside the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez.
Concannon, 44, has worked at the hospital for six years and used to be able to smoke outdoors wherever she pleased. Now, she said, aiming a finger at a designated kiosk for smokers, "they got us in those little booths.
"In the winter," she went on, "the rain falls on you through the cracks. The sun beats on you in the summer. It's like a little torture chamber."
The sprawling hospital restricts smoking to five gazebos that consist of a small bench between plastic partitions.
Judy Strong, a 64-year-old psychiatric technician, puffed away inside one of them earlier in the morning. She was unaware of the new law but said the kiosks are 30 feet from entry and exit doors.
"We've already been there," she said. "I smoke a lot less since the laws started passing. We all need to be aware of how bad it is. The more restrictions are put in, the less I smoke."
California, long a pioneer in anti-smoking legislation, banned smoking in most public places in 1994.
A few years later, lawmakers expanded the ban to include bars, setting a new national standard. Smokers fumed.
Nonetheless, the new law, sponsored by Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, hasn't led smokers to unite and say, "Kiss our ashes."
This bunch is used to being targeted for toking and for spewing clouds of airborne contaminants.
"You can't legislate everything to death, but health is the No. 1 priority," said Dana Studer, 43, sitting outside the medical center in a wheelchair. A cigarette was pinched between her lips.
"I'll obey whatever rules they make," she said, adding that her grandfather had died of emphysema.
"It's pretty sad," she added, staring into the sun. She took a long drag. "So how stupid am I?"
Her friend, Gary White, 51, said he had not heard of the new law. "But it could be 100 feet. It doesn't matter to me. You've got to respect other people's rights.
"Besides, the nurse told us to come over here to smoke."
Contra Costa Newspapers
Jan. 5, 2004
The new buffer for puffers promises to make 2004 another tough year for cigarette smokers.
A new state law that went into effect Jan. 1 expands the no-smoking zone around public buildings from five feet to 20 feet.
The purpose is to clear the air around entry and exit points at city, county and state-owned buildings. Secondhand smoke is blamed for killing 4,700 Californians each year.
Smokers are really feeling the squeeze. They are an increasingly isolated population, forced to light up in designated areas.
"It's just terrible. It never ends," said Corinne Concannon, indulging in a cigarette-and-coffee break Saturday outside the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez.
Concannon, 44, has worked at the hospital for six years and used to be able to smoke outdoors wherever she pleased. Now, she said, aiming a finger at a designated kiosk for smokers, "they got us in those little booths.
"In the winter," she went on, "the rain falls on you through the cracks. The sun beats on you in the summer. It's like a little torture chamber."
The sprawling hospital restricts smoking to five gazebos that consist of a small bench between plastic partitions.
Judy Strong, a 64-year-old psychiatric technician, puffed away inside one of them earlier in the morning. She was unaware of the new law but said the kiosks are 30 feet from entry and exit doors.
"We've already been there," she said. "I smoke a lot less since the laws started passing. We all need to be aware of how bad it is. The more restrictions are put in, the less I smoke."
California, long a pioneer in anti-smoking legislation, banned smoking in most public places in 1994.
A few years later, lawmakers expanded the ban to include bars, setting a new national standard. Smokers fumed.
Nonetheless, the new law, sponsored by Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, hasn't led smokers to unite and say, "Kiss our ashes."
This bunch is used to being targeted for toking and for spewing clouds of airborne contaminants.
"You can't legislate everything to death, but health is the No. 1 priority," said Dana Studer, 43, sitting outside the medical center in a wheelchair. A cigarette was pinched between her lips.
"I'll obey whatever rules they make," she said, adding that her grandfather had died of emphysema.
"It's pretty sad," she added, staring into the sun. She took a long drag. "So how stupid am I?"
Her friend, Gary White, 51, said he had not heard of the new law. "But it could be 100 feet. It doesn't matter to me. You've got to respect other people's rights.
"Besides, the nurse told us to come over here to smoke."
posted by Corey at 2:05 PM
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