\o7 A coalition of community activists, residents and students is urging the San Fernando City Council to adopt an ordinance that would restrict outdoor advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products from placement within 1,000 feet of residential areas, schools, parks, playgrounds and places of worship. The council gave preliminary approval to the ordinance at a meeting last week.
The Tobacco Education, Action and Mobilization Collaborative, or T.E.A.M., is also requesting that the ordinance include a provision that would restrict self-service tobacco displays or machines in stores, as well as storefront advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products. KARIMA A. HAYNES asked two community leaders what impact the ordinance would have on residents and business owners.\f7
GERARDO GUZMAN / \o7 25, Sylmar; program coordinator, Pueblo Y Salud Inc., San Fernando\f7
The messages that are carried on these billboards tell young ladies that if you smoke, you are going to be thin, beautiful and sexy, and young men that if you drink, you are going to be powerful, masculine and sexy. These are negative messages for children.
The type of prevention that we do at Pueblo Y Salud is environmental prevention. We are not talking about the influences that parents have on kids or the influences that kids have on their peers, but a third influence, which is that of the physical environment. If young people are going to school, the park or to church, they are constantly being [given] the message that smoking and drinking are cool.
The communities being targeted by the alcohol and cigarette industries are the poor and minority communities. These communities already face multiple problems. The tobacco and alcohol industries say to themselves, "These people have so many other things to worry about, they are not going to fight" billboards. In affluent communities, we see fewer alcohol and tobacco billboard advertisements, so we know that poor communities are being targeted. The tobacco and alcohol industries have to target younger populations because their economic livelihood depends on them.
The ordinance would mandate that all sales of tobacco products be merchant-assisted. This would effectively restrict all types of self-serve tobacco displays, machines and other ways kids can get tobacco products without interacting with a sales clerk who could check their IDs to see if they are of legal age.
