PG bans flavored tobacco, smoking in apartments
PACIFIC GROVE, Calif. (KION) Pacific Grove has declared tobacco use an urgent public health challenge, and their concerns mainly surround children getting hooked on vaping and people getting exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke.
The Pacific Grove City Council is banning the sale of all flavored tobacco products in town along with some other types of tobacco products like e-cigarettes. They are also making it illegal to smoke in an apartment if the housing complex has two units or more.
According to city staff, most apartments already do not allow smoking in their rooms, but the new ordinance would make it easier to report.
"Especially if you're in a multi-residential unit and the neighbors smoke, it's not sealed, it can still travel through, the chemicals could still travel through," said Preston Flatley, a Pacific Grove apartment resident.
"If you're a resident and you happen to be in a situation where you're receiving secondhand smoke from an apartment, first step is to contact your landlord," said Milas Smith, the deputy director of public works for Pacific Grove. "Second step would be to lodge a complaint."
The first offense would be just a warning, but repeated times could result in paying fines. Banning the sale of flavored tobacco products is a move something many medical professionals support.
"We've seen kids hospitalized with lung injuries, and that's not something I'd wish on anyone," said Stephanie, a Bay Area pediatrician who was visiting Pacific Grove on Thursday.
They are concerned over what they describe is an epidemic in schools, where kids and teens get hooked on vaping.
"If you take a look at their ads, it doesn't take a long stretch of imagination with the names of the products and color images to imagine their target market," said Stephanie.
Flavors like bubble gum, grape and cotton candy, all calling out to kids. But some think a ban is not the right answer.
"It never works," said Flatley.
Deputy Director Smith tells KION 56 other cities and counties in California already have similar secondhand smoke laws passed for their apartment, but Pacific Grove would be the first one on the Central Coast to have something like this.
