After completing a survey on the idea of smoke-free outdoor spaces, local public health officials are now calling for a total ban on smoking in outdoor public spaces across the region.
Public health recommends the bylaw consist of a complete smoking ban in designated outdoor locations, rather than a partial ban. “A blanket ban that does not make exceptions more closely aligns with what more than 90 other municipalities have done across the province and is considered best practice. A complete ban is more effective, easier to communicate and easier to enforce,” public health officials state in a report on the survey.
There’s plenty of information in the survey to indicate local residents are ready for such a move. For example, the survey reveals that 95 per cent of residents believe exposure to second-hand smoke can cause serious health problems and 76% believe banning smoking in outdoor spaces can help to protect people from second-hand smoke. In addition, support for some form of outdoor smoking restriction among Wellington County respondents was very high, with 97% supporting at least one of the smoke-free policy options suggested in the survey.
However, by banning butts from all public spaces, we would not only be preventing smoking in parks and around outdoor Sports fields, but also preventing smokers from indulging their habit by stepping outside and lighting up during breaks at indoor meetings or other events they attend at public facilities. Yet, assuming they were to maintain the expected distance from doorways, it’s hard to see how such practice hurts anyone but the smoker themselves. That would seem to contradict the intent of most public smoking legislation, which appears generally aimed at protecting non-smokers from second-hand inhalation.
If we, as a society, want to protect smokers from themselves, we ought to step up to the plate and ban the sale of tobacco products and deal with the consequences and fallout. Instead, our governments continue to ostensibly wag a disapproving finger while reaping the ongoing benefit of heavy tobacco taxes.
Given that weaning itself of tax revenue cold turkey would hit the government just as hard as sudden cessation hits smokers, we’re likely to see the continuation of this incremental approach – tapering off as they say. It might be less honest, but probably politically safer in the long run.
Meanwhile, Mapleton council has quietly passed a resolution and posted local parks with signs declaring them smoke free. The measure was taken last fall, at the end of the outdoor Sports season, so the impact has not yet been felt. It will be interesting to see if what is essentially a self-enforcement approach has the desired effect.
