THE TEEN WHO SNUFFED OUT SMOKING IN CALABASAS.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

CALABASAS - Margo Arnold had just graduated from Calabasas High last summer when she challenged City Hall to make public smokers crush their butts.

City Hall listened.

Today, Calabasas will begin enforcing the nation's toughest secondhand-smoke ordinance. And the Pierce College student, once sickened by smoke at restaurants and elsewhere, will breathe easier in the state's only smoke-free municipality.

``I'm just so thankful to the council,'' said Arnold, 19, of Calabasas. ``I can't wait to sit outside of Starbucks and not deal with the smoke - and just enjoy the fresh air.''

After graduating last June, the teen with olive eyes and pink Ugg boots hung out with a friend at The Commons at Calabasas, where they played musical chairs to skirt the clouds of tobacco smoke.

She had always gotten headaches from others' smoke. Her friend got a cough and a scratchy throat.

So Arnold, a civic activist in the footsteps of her mother, former arts and education commissioner Tracey Arnold, vowed to approach the City Council. Her request: Ban smoking near nonsmokers like her.

``Something needs to be done,'' she had told the officials. ``Calabasas has always been an environmentally cutting-edge city. We need to stop the smoking in outdoor areas.''

Then-Mayor Barry Groveman, an environmental attorney who wrote Proposition 65, the state's Safe Drinking Water Act, in 1986, was thrilled.

``Everybody knew we had to do this, but she germinated it - she brought it to a human level for all of us to see,'' said Groveman, a city councilman. ``It allowed us to rally around.''

The city's law is the first in the nation to ban smoking in any public area where others can whiff cigarette or cigar smoke - including sidewalks, parks, outdoor businesses, restaurant patios and common areas of housing complexes.

Those waiting to exhale must do so in designated smoking areas or 20 feet from a beaten path.

If a nonsmoker asks a smoker to butt it, he or she must snuff it or face a fine.

``This is not a ban on smoking,'' Groveman insisted. ``There are no smoking police. ... Everybody can comply by stopping the smoking when asked. It's that simple. If anyone wants to test it, the law has remedies.''

Last month, California air-quality regulators declared secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant. The Calabasas ordinance cited 52,000 nonsmokers killed each year by secondhand smoke, including 3,000 from lung cancer.

Smokers in this upscale city expressed doubts this week about claims that outdoor smoke caused cancer. Restaurant managers worried that smoking customers would flee to neighboring cities.

Anti-smoking advocates - including the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and local school officials - joined city officials to hail the new law.

``There is no safe exposure,'' said Martin Barrera, field advocacy specialist for the American Cancer Society, Southern California Region. ``I would expect to see more cities in California (enacting similar laws) throughout the year.''

``The evidence is incontrovertible: Secondhand smoke kills people,'' added Dr. Derek Raghavan, an oncologist and director of the Taussig Cancer Center at the Cleveland Clinic, rated among the best in the country.

``I hope city councils (across the nation) will look at this seriously and say, Calabasas has been a leader.''

Meanwhile, threats poured in from across the U.S. from what Groveman described as ``tobacco-related interests.''

``The remedy for your boldness is a tall tree and a short rope - and if you think that's a threat, you're smarter than I give you credit for,'' read one message.

``I'm putting a spell on you and hope that you choke to death in three months,'' read another.

Groveman, a former prosecutor who sent many to the clink, said he was nonplussed. He also said Calabasas was the kind of town where you can call the mayor in the middle of the night and be heard at City Hall.

Arnold, who started the whole anti-smoking fracas, said her campaign to ban secondhand smoke was worth it. That Calabasas would be a healthier place, despite the gripes from smokers.

``For the City Council to take a teenager's advice, it's pretty amazing,'' said Arnold, who plans to major in public relations at USC or UCLA, from beneath newly cut no-smoking-zone signs in the back of - where else? - Calabasas City Hall. ``I hope that more teens will speak up.

``That's what being a citizen is all about.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Calabasas resident Margo Arnold, 19, was the spark that ignited the city's ordinance on secondhand smoke, the toughest in the nation, which goes into effect today.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer