San Fernando Best at Snuffing Cigarette Ads

LOS ANGELES —  A report card released by an anti-tobacco coalition on Tuesday said the cities best protecting children from cigarette advertising in the county are those in some of the areas most targeted by tobacco companies.

San Fernando received the highest grade for passing ordinances that restrict advertisements likely to reach children, followed by Los Angeles, according to the nonprofit Los Angeles Regional Control Community Linkage Project, known as L.A. Link.

Rounding out the top 10 were Inglewood, Carson, La Puente, Covina, Long Beach, Compton, West Hollywood and the county government.

“The tobacco industry has really saturated ethnic neighborhoods with outdoor advertisements,” said Pat Etem, executive director of L.A. Link. “And the cities that by and large have had the most progressive laws are the ones with large populations of Latinos and African Americans.”

L.A. Link is a tobacco control group funded by state tobacco taxes, with members from health care, education, government and community groups.

In San Fernando, a grass-roots group called Pueblo y Salud has fought vigilantly to restrict billboards and storefront signs with tobacco and alcohol ads near schools, churches, playgrounds and parks. The City Council recently passed laws that require retailers to get a city license to sell cigarettes, and keep them behind the counter where buyers must ask for them.

Mayor Jose Hernandez said the demographics of his city prompted leaders to pass the ordinances: half the city population is younger than 18. “These young people are targets of the liquor and tobacco industry, so we have to protect them,” he said.

While storefront signs are still contested across the nation, the issue of cigarettes on billboards breathed its last wheeze in November, when tobacco companies signed a $206-billion agreement to settle state lawsuits, including a provision to ban such advertising nationwide. All cigarette billboards were required to come down by April 23.

A spokesman for Outdoor Systems, a billboard company that fought many of the local ordinances, said it should have a legal right to advertise any legal product. He said the issue is largely political, illustrated by the fact that cities are still restricting tobacco billboards even though they are banned across the country. “It’s all just a political move,” said spokesman Chris Massey.