Burbank walk promotes healthy air

BURBANK — The Los Angeles Healthy Air Walk will be held in Burbank this year because of the city’s high marks in the American Lung Assn. of California’s 2008 State of Tobacco Control local report card, which rated 88 cities on their efforts to combat secondhand smoke.

Burbank was one of three cities to receive an A grade, along with Calabasas and Baldwin Park. Almost half of the rated cities received below-average grades, with 40 cities receiving an F — one of which was La Cañada Flintridge. Glendale, which has adopted an ordinance banning smoking in public places since the report card came out, received a C, with low marks in outdoor dining and entryways.

The Los Angeles Healthy Air Walk is designed to bring together people who want to fight lung disease by creating clean air, according to the organization’s website. The event will begin at 9 a.m. Nov. 9 in front of Burbank City Hall at 275 E. Olive Ave. Walkers must register and raise a minimum of $100.Several hundred walkers are expected to attend the event in Burbank, but due to the poor economy and the Healthy Air Walk being a new cause, the Los Angeles group is having trouble meeting its $400,000 goal, said Jim Arnold, regional director of communications for the American Lung Assn. of California.

The walk has raised $40,000 and plans to continue to raise funds for a month after the event, said Lauren Dukar, the communications manager for the American Lung Assn. of California

“We may not get there, but we’re shooting for it,” Arnold said.

The first annual Healthy Air Walk is scheduled to take place in 11 cities in California over the coming months, with the last walk in Modesto on May 16. Proceeds from the walks will go to the American Lung Assn. of California to fund educational programs and advocacy for healthy air, Arnold said.

Robert Phipps, an early advocate of clean air for nonsmokers, is one of the founders of a group of organized Burbank residents who support tobacco control and prevention and a smoke-free environment.

The organization, Smoke-Free Burbank, proposes a ban on smoking in all outdoor dining areas mentioned in the report as well as specific areas in Burbank, including the AMC Theatre Promenade, Burbank Empire Center, Farmers Market and waiting areas for restaurants, ATMs and movie theater lines.

“No group of people should have the right to poison another group of people in any amount in any place,” Phipps said.