Problem must stop

Long Beach has been blowing the doors off other cities' anti-tobacco movements.

In 1991, the city passed an ordinance that banned cigarette vending machines in bars and billboards with tobacco advertisements from being placed within 1,000 feet of schools and established smoke-free workplaces, restaurants and bars long before California could fathom such an ordinance.

Fifty percent of Long Beach minors have smoked at least once, said a district-wide survey of junior high and high school students.

Due to the city health department's innovative and creative programs that target young smokers, Long Beach's figures are lower than the national average.

As part of the department's Tobacco Education Program, Long Beach recently established a storytelling and singing group, comprised of 10- to 18-year-olds that will put on programs warning other youths about the harmful repercussions of tobacco use.

The state's crackdown on merchants who are caught selling to minors has been a major facet of California's commitment to reducing teenage smoking.

Long Beach's city-wide commitment and California's state-wide pledge to the reduction of teenage smoking are models of dedication and a successful counter to a growing problem.