L.A. council panel to consider ban on outdoor restaurant smoking

The council's Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee will meet this afternoon to consider a plan by Councilman Greig Smith to bar smoking within five feet of any restaurant table on a sidewalk, in an outdoor courtyard or on an exterior patio.

With smoking already prohibited inside restaurants, Smith said through a spokesman that L.A.'s al fresco dining areas have become de facto smoking sections.

"We can no longer smoke on the beach, yet you can still smoke in dining areas that are outside, and that's just not right," said Mitch Englander, Smith's chief of staff. "It disturbs a lot of people. It's not healthy, particularly if you have a family with young kids and you want to dine outside."

The proposal is the latest effort by Los Angeles to snuff out the few remaining places where residents and visitors can smoke without violating the law. In an effort to limit the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, the council voted in 2002 to prohibit smoking on its public beaches and moved last year to expand the ban to include public parks -- except for designated smoking areas, golf courses and locations where smoking is occurring as part of a film shoot.

During today's meeting, the council committee will also consider a proposal to prohibit smoking at farmers markets. The panel also will weigh an unrelated plan to require restaurants with more than 15 outlets in California to place basic nutritional information about their products on their menus.

Smith's proposed smoking ban is modeled after a similar law passed in Burbank. It would apply only to sit-down dining establishments, not bars and nightclubs that have outdoor patios, Englander said.

david.zahniser@latimes.com