Noses Become The Enforcers Against Smoke

Calabasas banned smoking in any public area where it can be smelled.

Cities across the country have banned smoking in all kinds of places, but the upscale Southern California city of Calabasas is doing them all one better. On Friday, a city ordinance went into effect that prohibits smoking in any public area where others can smell cigarette, pipe or cigar smoke.

Smokers are banned from sidewalks, parks, outdoor businesses, restaurant patios and condominium common areas and are only allowed to light up 20 feet from a path. Furthermore, the ordinance grants nonsmokers the right to tell smokers to snuff out their butts. If smokers refuse, the ordinance says, they will be liable for stiff fines. The only places where smokers will be allowed untrammeled puffing are designated smoking areas at shopping malls.

"We just don't want anyone blowing smoke in someone's face," Calabasas Mayor Pro Tem Dennis Washburn told the Los Angeles Daily News. "People should have the right to breathe clean air."

The city's secondhand-smoke law is the first in the nation to ban smoking in any public area where others can smell it.

Last month, California air-quality regulators declared secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant. The Calabasas ordinance cited 52,000 nonsmokers killed each year by secondhand smoke, including 3,000 from lung cancer.

-- John Pomfret