California Governor Jerry Brown banned smoking and the use of electronic cigarettes within 250 feet of any Little League baseball game or other youth sports event on September 23 according to The Los Angeles Times.
The bill was introduced by Senator Richard Pan (D-Sacramento), a pediatrician, after getting a request from an eighth-grade class in Elk Grove. Pan said tobacco products have no place near children. It is part of several anti-smoking bills that California has enacted.
“Youth sports is about developing good and healthy habits and smoking is the exact opposite of that,” Pan said.
Pan introduced the measure, SB 977, at the request of the eighth grade class at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Elementary School in Elk Grove.
Pan said that children exposed to secondhand smoke are at increased risk of asthma, lung infection and ear disease, among other health conditions.
