California Attorney Tom Martin’s Law Blog

The Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA) in the Spotlight feature of its December 1, 2006 Newsletter, recognized Attorney Thomas G. Martin as a member of the community who has helped LBACA to improve the lives of children with asthma in the Long Beach community:

“Tom Martin is an active member of LBACA and proactive in raising awareness of asthma since he has a young daughter affected by asthma. A graduate of Yale University and UCLA School of Law, Mr. Martin is the founder of his own law firm. The Law Office of Thomas Glenn Martin is located in Long Beach, California, erves clients throughout Southern California, including the Greater Los Angeles area and Orange County. The firm is focused on representing individuals within three major practice areas: personal injury, toxic injury, and consumer protection.

Tom has participated at several of our asthma events and has attended coalition meetings. He has also written excerpts that have been featured in our newsletters in the community corner. Tom has generously made a contribution to LBACA to conduct asthma trainings to private local preschools. As a result of his donation, LBACA will be able to train several interested preschools in the Long Beach area. We would like Tom Martin for his generosity and passion for helping others especially children with asthma.”

This week the attorneys general of 38 states, including California, entered into a settlement that ends the sale of candy, fruit and alcohol flavored cigarettes manufactured and sold by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

In July 2005, the American Lung Association first issued a report detailing the tobacco industry’s continued targeted marketing to teens via candy-flavored cigarettes.

Here’s an excerpt from that report:

Now that the use of cartoon characters to sell cigarettes has been prohibited, major tobacco companies have devised a new way to target our children: selling cigarettes and tobacco products in assorted candy flavors.

R.J. Reynolds manufactured a pineapple and coconut-flavored cigarette called Kauai Kolada in 2004 and has an ongoing line of flavored cigarettes called Camel Exotic Blends. Brown & Williamson also introduced flavored versions of its Kool menthol cigarette in 2004 with names like Caribbean Chill and Mintrigue.

Federal legislation to give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate and prohibit the sale of flavored cigarettes has been bogged down in Congress for several years due to R.J. Reynolds’ opposition, forcing a number of states to introduce legislation to prohibit the sale of these new types of cigarettes.

The state attorneys general asserted that R.J. Reynolds violated the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement’s prohibition on youth targeting through its advertising, marketing and promotion of its flavored cigarettes.

In announcing the settlement, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer stated: “Hopefully, this settlement will keep RJR from breaking its word again and ensure the company acts responsibly to help protect children from starting a deadly habit.”

Given the post-Proposition 64 landscape in California, it is even more necessary that consumers’ right to be free of false and deceptive advertising be protected by a vigilant and aggressive attorney general.

Americans spend up to 90% of their time indoors. Indoor allergens and irritants can play a significant role in triggering asthma attacks. Some of the most common indoor asthma triggers include secondhand smoke, dust mites, mold, cockroaches and other pests.

If you rent and are familiar with any of these conditions in your living space, contact your city health inspector. The inspector can identify violations jeopardizing residents’ health and safety, and has the authority to take the appropriate enforcement action to correct the violations.

Once a violation is confirmed by the inspector, written notice is sent to the landlord indicating the actions required to correct it. Next, a reinspection is conducted to see if the situation has been resolved. If not, the inspector may refer the matter to the city prosecutor for legal action.

It is unlawful for your landlord to evict you or increase your rent in retaliation for your complaint to the city health inspector. If he does so, you may have a claim against him for actual and punitive damages under Civil Code 1942.5. You may also be entitled to attorney fees.

For more information, please contact your local health inspector. For the City of Long Beach, please read this brochure regarding the City’s Housing Inspection Program.

If your landlord has retaliated against you for your complaints to a government agency regarding unhealthy living conditions, contact an attorney. Preserve your rights by exercising them.

Unintended consequences of the “zero-tolerance” movement resulted in some states requiring all medications in school to be locked away. However, in the case of children with asthma, even a brief delay in retrieving emergency medication can be fatal.

In 2005, California law was amended to ensure asthmatic students’ right to carry their inhalers and self-medicate to control their asthma.

The statute, Education Code 49423.1, requires that a student annually provide the school with a written statement from a doctor detailing the method, amount, and time schedules by which the medication is to be taken and a written statement from a parent or guardian consenting to the self-administration and releasing the school from liability.

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A bill (HR 4167) that passed the House of Representatives in March, would allow companies to hide toxins from the public by preempting state and local authorities from enacting food safety regulations stronger than those required by the federal government.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has joined California Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein in supporting Proposition 65 — a California law requiring companies to warn consumers before exposing them to chemicals that may cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.

In a letter to Senator Feinstein regarding the bill’s effect on Proposition 65, Governor Schwarzenegger wrote:

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The Long Beach Alliance for Children with Asthma (LBACA) will receive the World Asthma Day proclamation from the Long Beach City Council this evening at 5 p.m. Thereafter, LBACA will host an open house at the Vasek Polak Children’s Clinic at 1057 Pine Avenue from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

World Asthma Day is an annual event organized to improve asthma awareness and care around the world.

This year, World Asthma Day is organized around the theme “The Unmet Needs of Asthma.” Unmet needs include improved diagnosis, treatment, education and environmental health.

According to the Global Burden of Asthma Report, the United States is ranked 15th in the world for the highest percentage of population with asthma and 6th in the world for the prevalence of current asthma symptoms in childhood.¹

• The number of people with asthma in the US is estimated at 35.5 million. The total population of the US is 316.9 million.
• The total direct costs and indirect costs of asthma in the US in 1994 was around 12 billion dollars.
• Asthma accounts for around 14.7 million missed school days and 11.8 million missed work days annually in the US.
• In 2002, 4,261 people died from asthma and of those 187 were children under the age of 18.²

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“Occupational disease continues to exact a tremendous toll in California. Each month, an estimated 1,900 Californians are diagnosed with a preventable, deadly chronic disease that is attributable to chemical exposures in the workplace; another 540 Californians die as a result of a chronic disease linked to chemical exposures in the workplace.”¹

“Every day, the U.S. produces or imports 42 billion pounds of chemicals, 90% of which are created using oil, a non-renewable feedstock. Converted to gallons of water, this volume is the equivalent of 623,000 gasoline tanker trucks (each carrying 8,000 gallons), which would reach from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and back if placed end-to-end. In the course of a year, this line would circle the earth 86 times at the equator.”²

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Did you know…

…the Los Angeles region comprises over 12 million people and 5,000 miles of stormwater drainage?

…the stormwater drainage system is completely untreated?

…when it rains every plastic bag, cigarette butt, oil slick, styrofoam cup and piece of garbage left on the streets of Los Angeles is washed into storm drains that lead directly to the ocean?

…4,500 to 12,000 tons of trash is deposited each year on our shores?

…Long Beach, which is situated at the outlet of the 51 mile Los Angeles river (channelized in 1935 as part of the stormwater system), is particularly affected?

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