June 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 52

YOUTH VAPING EPIDEMIC

signs - such as Young lungs at play.
Please don't smoke.
" Initially, we did only the playground areas, identified a 25-foot
perimeter around them and declared
that a smoke-free zone by putting up
signs, " he says. " We primarily got a
very positive response from parents. "
Brady says the next steps were
establishing a special committee of
esta
the GHP
GHPRD Board of Park Commissioners and then working on a
comprehensive study of the park
University
district with Marshall Un
memto gauge how community mem
bers perceive GHPRD and what
improvements they would recommend. Their findings revealed that
87 percent of survey respondents
would prefer going totally smokefree and vape-free in their parks.
" Working with our board of
directors, we established our policy, " Brady says. The park district
consulted with its attorneys and
collaborated with its county health
department to develop a policy that
would make all of GHPRD's parks
smoke-, vape- and tobacco-free,
with the exception of the remote
50

Parks & Recreation

parking areas at the parks. The
tobacco-free policy officially went
into effect May 1, 2018.
Local municipalities aren't the
only ones taking a proactive approach to combating smoking and
vaping. Additional progress has
been made in this area at the state
level. For example, in Maine, a state
law was passed banning smoking of
tobacco or any other substance in,
on or within 20 feet of a beach, playground or restroom in a state park
or state historic site.
On May 15, 2019, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed
House Bill 139 into law, allowing the
Department of Natural and
state's Depa
Cultural Resources to issue rules restricting smoking in state parks.
p

The Role of Park Agencies
What can park professionals do to
educate the community about youth
vaping? According to Ture Nycum:
" I honestly believe partnering with
your local public health department, police department and local
schools is invaluable. It's been invaluable here in Fruita to be able to

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talk to all those other agencies and
come up with strategies on how to
educate the community on what's
happening [with youth vaping] and
then letting the community members make their own decisions. "
He adds that forging a partnership
between your public health department and your park and recreation
agency makes perfect sense, because
public health departments have a lot
of content and research they can
provide, while park and recreation
agencies have a lot more contact
and outreach with the community. What's more, it's important to
engage the community to get their
input, especially about the pros and
cons of instituting smoke- and vapefree policies in your parks.
When it comes to funding for
tobacco cessation and education,
Thomas Carr believes partnerships
are critical. " I'd certainly encourage
park and recreation departments to
work with their local public health
departments to talk about how they
could work together to reduce tobacco use in parks. I think that would be
a great partnership that could be explored in any state, " he says.
So, what role should park agencies play in confronting this serious epidemic? Perhaps Andy Bass
sums it up the best: " Our role is to
improve the health of our community members and if there are ways
to mitigate the harmful effects of
tobacco and e-cigarettes, then we
should be willing to stand up and
fight for it. "
Note: For a glossary of vaping terms,
N
go online to www.nrpa.org/parksrecreation-magazine/2019/June/
recreation-mag
the-youth-vaping-epidem
the-youth-vaping-epidemic.
Vitisia Paynich is a Southern
Sout
Californiabased Freelance Writer
Write for Parks &
magazine.
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June 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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