March 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 45

By Melanie Chansky

PUBLIC HEALTH

Implementing
Tobacco-Free Parks
in Local Communities

MOKING BANS ARE GAINING GREATER TRACTION in states and

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local communities throughout the United States. According to
the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation (ANRF), nearly
80 percent of the U.S. population is covered by some form of tobacco
or smoking ban.

Although bans on tobacco use in such indoor
spaces as workplaces and restaurants often gain the
most attention, the number of bans in outdoor spaces, like parks, are increasing as well. ANRF reports
that nearly 1,900 localities in the United States restrict
smoking in outdoor spaces, including parks, beaches, and outdoor stadiums.
Park and recreation agencies are choosing to implement smoking and tobacco bans for several important reasons. First, these bans help protect the
health of community members, particularly children, in numerous ways. Reducing exposure to secondhand smoke is important for infants and young
children with immature immune systems. Secondhand smoke essentially negates the positive effects
of engaging in outdoor activities. Additionally, when
children see adults smoking in public places, they
absorb a cultural attitude that smoking is acceptable.
Also, smoking- and tobacco-related waste contributes to a degradation of the environment in parks.
Cigarette butts, which are the most prevalent form
of litter on earth, never fully biodegrade and can be
accidentally ingested by young children and wildlife. Furthermore, discarded smoking materials are
responsible for a significant number of fires in parks
each year. Finally, allowing smoking and tobacco use
in parks contradicts a basic philosophy of park and
recreation departments as providing healthy outdoor
living, fitness, and recreational activities.
Despite the strong reasons for implementing
smoking and tobacco bans, agencies can run into
significant hurdles in getting these bans in place.
The community, including citizens and elected officials, must support the ban. In some areas, community members are not supportive of these bans,

particularly in outdoor public
spaces, because they do not see
any harm from outdoor smoking and perceive these bans as
an intrusion of government on
their rights. There are also concerns about how these bans will
be enforced. Communities hesitate to devote limited law enforcement resources to policing these
bans, and they are also concerned
about what types of penalties offenders will receive. In addition, certain states preempt the ability of local governments to regulate
smoking and tobacco use, making local-level smoking bans difficult to implement.
Even with the difficulties inherent in passing regulations creating tobacco-free parks, many park and
recreation agencies have persevered and successfully implemented these bans. In Longview, Washington, a team of community leaders came together
to introduce a city-wide tobacco-free parks policy. They viewed this as a worthwhile goal despite
their awareness that a vocal minority of community members saw these efforts as government intrusion into their personal freedoms and opposed the
spending of tax dollars on community health initiatives. The team presented their ideas to the city
council, which agreed to form an ad hoc committee to study the policy. The committee conducted
a survey of community members which contradicted the views of the vocal minority who opposed the
policy; 89 percent of those surveyed supported either a partial or complete tobacco ban in the local
parks. Based on these survey results, the committee

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