It started on a strand of coastline just over a mile long.
Now, a growing number of Southern California coastal cities are following the lead of Solana Beach and moving to ban smoking on their beaches. But because of the patchwork of city, county and state beaches in Southern California, smokers may need to add global positioning devices to their sunscreen and magazines to determine whether their favorite beach is in a smoking zone.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday June 04, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 51 words Type of Material: Correction
Smoking at the beach -- Articles in the California section Sunday and May 22 about smoking prohibitions on Southern California beaches reported that San Clemente had set aside smoking areas on the city's beach and pier. Such zones had been proposed, but the City Council voted unanimously to reject designated-smoking areas.
County-operated state and county beaches in Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Malibu will abide by those cities' smoking bans, county officials say.
But smoking has not been prohibited at other county- and state-run beaches in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Some no-smoking beaches have designated smoking areas. And on some oceanfront stretches, a person can straddle an invisible line where smoking is legal on one side but not the other.
One organization hopes to eliminate the confusion. "The ultimate goal is to have the entire state of California have smoke-free beaches," said Ananya Mullane, youth program coordinator for the Earth Resource Foundation, one of 30 groups expected to gather today in Huntington Beach for "World No-Tobacco Day 2004."
Such a wholesale ban on smoking would require state legislation to include state beaches, and none has been proposed. But no-smoking advocates say they are surprised at how quickly the movement to ban smoking has spread.
"I think it's an idea whose time has come, and I think that's why [so many cities] are catching the smoke-free beach wave," said Debra Kelley, vice president of the American Lung Assn. of San Diego.
San Clemente, which in March became the first Orange County city to ban smoking, has set aside four designated-smoking areas on its beach and at the base of its pier.
On Tuesday, the Newport Beach City Council will discuss a smoking ban, and city councils in Huntington Beach and Laguna Beach have ordered draft ordinances to prohibit smoking on their municipal beaches. Seal Beach is gathering research.
Those cities represent every municipally operated beach in Orange County. Dana Point officials are unaffected by the debate because their beaches are run by the county and state.
The extension of city bans onto state beaches may apply to only one state beach in Orange County -- Corona del Mar State Beach, which is operated by Newport Beach.
