Clearing the smoke
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No Comments [ Add Comment ]By Loretta Park
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau
lpark@standard.net
F
ARMINGTON -- Davis County Health Board plans to lighten up its tanning regulations at its next meeting Tuesday, but may also dampen the opportunities for smokers to light up.
Davis County Health Director Lewis Garrett said board members plan to discuss implementing an outdoor smoking ban, which was made easier by a bill passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor.
House Bill 201, sponsored by Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clinton, clarified the state's law that allows local governments to ban smoking in outdoor areas.
Garrett said the health board will discuss banning smoking in outdoor areas, such as public parks where Little League or soccer games are played.
Currently, Clinton is the only Davis County city that bans smoking in public parks.
In 2006, Salt Lake City enacted a code banning smoking in city parks, recreational areas, cemeteries and within 50 feet of mass gatherings.
In Davis County, 8.3 percent of adults smoke; the percentage of Davis youth who smoke is 6.8 percent, health officials report.
A subcommittee was assigned at the board's last meeting to come up with recommendations for restricting outdoor smoking in public areas. At Tuesday's meeting, the board will assign a group to study the recommendations.
The group will then get the proposed ordinance ready for a public hearing, which could be scheduled within the next two months.
"I expect that public hearing will be well-attended," Garrett said.
Garrett said he hopes the health board will have enough information by its next board meeting in June to be able to adopt an ordinance.
A new tanning law, which goes into effect July 1, also has the health board looking at its tanning ordinance. Sen. Patricia Jones, D-Salt Lake City, sponsored Senate Bill 52, which requires parents to sign consent forms once a year designating the number of times their children younger than 18 can use a tanning facility. Utah joins two dozen other states requiring parental consent.
Jones said in a committee hearing that Utah ranks in the top five states for deaths connected to skin cancer.
The new regulations are less stringent than the ones Davis County had in place, Garrett said.
Davis County requires parents to go with their teenagers for each tanning session, sign a consent form and stay at the salon with their child.
"I feel like (the bill) is a reasonable middle ground," said Brian Moser, owner of Tanning Oasis in Layton and Roy.
Moser watched business decrease in his Layton salon after the county health board imposed the strict regulations last year.
The tanning industry has supported parental signatures for teenagers to tan, Moser said, but had never intended for the regulations to be as strict as Davis County's.
Davis teenagers would drive to Weber County, where parental consent is not required, or go to Salt Lake County, where parents were required to sign a consent form once a year.
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