City of Philadelphia City Council
Chief Clerk’s Office
402 City Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19107
BILL NO. 050063
Introduced February 3, 2005
Councilmembers Nutter, Reynolds-Brown, Goode, Council President Verna, Councilmembers Rizzo, Tasco, Miller, Cohen and O’Neill
Referred to the Committee on Public Health and Human Services
AN ORDINANCE
Amending Chapter 10-600 of The Philadelphia Code, entitled “Public Places — Prohibited Conduct,” by prohibiting smoking in public places and in the workplace, and providing for penalties, all under certain terms and conditions.
WHEREAS, Beginning in the 1940s, the City of Philadelphia has enacted prohibitions on smoking in various public facilities in order to protect the public health and welfare; and
WHEREAS, Smoking on public transit vehicles has been prohibited in the City since 1943 and was declared at that time to be a “nuisance prejudicial to the welfare and safety” of the riding public; and
WHEREAS, Smoking in certain retail stores has been prohibited since 1947, and smoking in places of public assembly with a capacity of more than 100 persons has been prohibited since 1948; and
WHEREAS, Pursuant to the City’s Fire Code, smoking is prohibited in various facilities such as warehouses, stores, industrial plants, institutions and schools; and
WHEREAS, Since 1993, an Executive Order has prohibited smoking in all City-owned and City-occupied space to which the public has access; and
WHEREAS, Several measures have been enacted which seek to curb access to cigarettes and tobacco products by minors, including Bill No. 732 (approved December 28, 1995) which required purchasers of tobacco products to present a photo I.D. and required warning signs about sales to minors on vending machines; and, Bill No. 960367-A (approved June 23, 1998) which required “lock-out devices” on cigarette vending machines; and
WHEREAS, Many studies have found that tobacco smoke is a major contributor to indoor air pollution and that exposure to secondhand smoke is a cause of many serious health diseases in adult non-smokers and children; and
WHEREAS, This Ordinance is enacted to further protect the public’s health and welfare from the dangerous, unnecessary and involuntary health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke; now, therefore,
THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA HEREBY ORDAINS:
SECTION 1. Legislative Findings. The Council finds that:
(a) Tobacco smoke, also referred to as secondhand smoke, contains more than 4,000 known chemical compounds that are released into the air as particles and gases.
(b) According to a 2001 report issued by the National Cancer Institute, there are sixty-nine known or probable carcinogens in tobacco smoke.
(c) In 1986, the U.S. Surgeon General concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke can cause lung cancer in healthy nonsmokers.
(d) In 1992, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is responsible for approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in U.S. nonsmokers, and that secondhand smoke has a statistically significant effect on the respiratory health of non-smoking adults.
(e) For children, the 1992 EPA report concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke is casually associated with increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, such as bronchitis and pneumonia; increased prevalence of fluid in the middle ear; and, increased symptoms of upper respiratory tract irritation. Moreover, the EPA found that exposure to tobacco smoke increases the number of episodes and the severity of symptoms in asthmatic children, and causes thousands of non-asthmatic children to develop this condition each year.
(f) A 2004 study appearing in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, found that while three-fourths of white collar workers are covered by smoke-free workplace policies, fewer than 13% of bartenders and 28% of wait staff have the benefit of a smoke-free workplace. In 2002, food service workers accounted for the fourth highest number of employees in the workforce; and, 20% were teenagers; 55.8 % were female; approximately 12% were African-American; and, nearly 20% were Hispanic.
(g) Ventilation devices are very expensive to retrofit into existing buildings and there is no scientific evidence which demonstrates that ventilation technology can eliminate the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has concluded that ventilation is not an acceptable engineering control measure for controlling occupational exposure to secondhand smoke.
(h) Based on 2002 health survey data, nearly 75% of Pennsylvanians do not smoke.
(i) Many citizens of Philadelphia are exposed to tobacco smoke due to its widespread presence in public places and in the workplace. Exposure to secondhand smoke presents a substantial health risk to adult nonsmokers and children.
(j) In order to protect and promote the public’s health, safety and welfare, further restrictions on smoking in public places and in the workplace should be enacted.
[tags]philly, smoking, ban, philadelphia[/tags]