Activist Seeks Smoking Ban

Cambridge should adopt much stricter smoking regulations than those currently in place, a local tobacco control advocate said last night in a gathering at the Cambridge Substance Abuse Task Force headquarters.

Patricia M. Andersen, the coordinator of tobacco policy and enforcement for the Cambridge Department of Health and Hospitals, led a discussion among 15 Boston-area antismoking activists about Cambridge's efforts to curb smoking in the community.

Andersen said Cambridge's current requirement that restaurants and bars provide 25 percent of seating for non-smokers, is insufficient.

She called for a measure that would ban smoking completely in all Cambridge restaurants and bars. A similar regulation is already in place in Brookline, Andersen said.

Though Cambridge has made no steps toward enacting a full ban, the Massachusetts State Senate is currently considering a bill that would outlaw smoking in restaurants statewide.

But Andersen said she was not optimistic that the bill would pass.

"It's so easy for tobacco lobbyists to get to state senators with their money," Andersen said.

Legislating on a community level is usually easier, Andersen said, because tobacco companies do not get involved with local ordinances.

She also said the city should pass an ordinance similar to one in Somerville which requires stores to buy a permit to sell tobacco.

"Permits would allow health departments to know where all tobacco outlets in a community are," Andersen said. A list of tobacco sellers would enable law enforcement to monitor illegal tobacco sales to minors more strictly, she added.

Participants said they supported a recently enacted Cambridge ordinance regulating cigarette vending machines.

The ordinance requires vendors to equip all machines with a lockout device, which prevents the operation of a machine unless it is unlocked after vendors have verified their customers are over the age of 18.

"Vending machine sales are only two percent of tobacco sales in Massachusetts," said Mark A. Gottlieb, staff attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University. "But a significant percent age of those sales are illegal sales to minors."

The Cambridge Department of Health and Hospitals had originally pushed for an outright ban on cigarette vending machines in Cambridge but agreed to the lockout device provision as a compromise with the city council.

Gottlieb said he worries that too many smoking regulations could become unnecessarily paternalistic.

"I'm nervous about government getting involved in everyday lives," Gottlieb said. "Smokers feel like big brother--or big sister--is watching over them."

Andersen said proposed antismoking legislation does not need to be implemented to be effective.

"The whole campaign around legislation is more important than whether you win," she said. "[Campaigns] are the best educational tool we have. You get the media involved and the community involved. You're getting your issue out in the public."