09-17-2010, 07:35 AM
As some here may know, I recently took a promotion to work for the Department of Health. Anyway, now I get daily news updates regarding health-related issues via e-mail. This one came through yesterday, which made me realize things are really getting out of hand. This is likely old news to those members who are NY residents...
City Wants a Smoking Ban on Beaches
ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
New York Times
9/15/10
Beware all you New Yorkers and tourists who have yet to kick the habit.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has already banned smoking in restaurants and bars, wants to prohibit it in much of the great outdoors: parks, beaches and even pedestrian malls and plazas like those around Times Square, on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn and Broadway on the Upper West Side.
The proposed law, which is to be introduced to the City Council on Thursday, would cover all 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities, and 14 miles of city beaches, as well as boardwalks, public marinas and the public pedestrian malls and plazas.
City health officials proposed a smoking ban in parks and beaches last year, but the mayor seemed to be caught off guard by the idea and did not immediately embrace it. But after he and his health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, spent months looking at studies, Mr. Bloomberg delivered a broadside against secondhand smoke at a news conference on Wednesday and said that one poll showed 65 percent of adults were with him.
Research showed, he said, that someone seated within three feet of a smoker — even in the open air — was exposed to roughly the same levels of secondhand smoke as someone sitting indoors in the same situation.
“When New Yorkers and visitors go to parks and beaches for fresh air, there will actually be fresh air for them to breathe,” the mayor said. “Most people don’t like their beaches being used as ashtrays.”
Mr. Bloomberg was something of a pioneer when he proposed the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in 2002, but he noted that hundreds of cities and towns across the country, including Chicago and Los Angeles, have already banned smoking in parks and beaches. And the success of the restaurant and bar ban, which was fiercely debated at the time, has since gained widespread acceptance, and could dampen any outcry over the new proposal.
Still, Jack Regan, 49, an information technology worker and a casual smoker, was not jumping on board. “What do I have to do now, go sit in a hole in the wall?” Mr. Regan asked on Wednesday. “An underground cave? An underground fortress of shame?”
Lula Trainor, 28, a yoga teacher who quit smoking four years ago, pronounced the ban “stupid.”
“It’s outside, it’s not like there’s no ventilation,” she said. “You can always walk away from a smoker, but they should have the choice to smoke.”
But others welcomed the idea. Melissa Sullivan, 32, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, said her 1-year-old daughter’s playmate had picked a cigarette butt off the ground and almost put it in her mouth. “There is a baby boom in the neighborhood,” Ms. Sullivan said. “As a mom, I don’t want my baby to see smoking and think it’s acceptable.”
The proposal, which is to be introduced by Gale Brewer, a Democratic councilwoman from the Upper West Side, must be reviewed in public hearings before it can be adopted by the Council. Officials said there were some details yet to be worked out, including the amount of a fine, which is expected to be in the $50 range.
While it was known the mayor was thinking of prohibiting smoking at parks and beaches, Wednesday was the first time the mayor mentioned extending such a ban to the urban landscape of outdoor pedestrian areas.
Such plazas and malls have been sprouting across the city. The most celebrated ones are in Manhattan’s commercial and tourist hub — the theater district, Times Square and Herald Square — where stretches of Broadway have been closed to cars and outfitted with cafe tables and chairs.
But the proposal would also cover dozens of other locations, city officials said, including plazas in Dumbo, Chelsea and Lower Manhattan, as well as so-called pedestrian malls in the middle of many large avenues.
At the news conference, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who supports the ban, was asked whether the police would give tickets to people who smoked while walking across pedestrian malls in crosswalks. She insisted the law was not meant to be a “gotcha.”
“A question I know people are going to ask, ‘Does this include me walking up and down the street?’ ” Ms. Quinn said. “The sidewalks are not part of this proposal.” But, she added, “We do not want the person who’s sitting at the little table — they can’t smoke.”
City Wants a Smoking Ban on Beaches
ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
New York Times
9/15/10
Beware all you New Yorkers and tourists who have yet to kick the habit.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has already banned smoking in restaurants and bars, wants to prohibit it in much of the great outdoors: parks, beaches and even pedestrian malls and plazas like those around Times Square, on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn and Broadway on the Upper West Side.
The proposed law, which is to be introduced to the City Council on Thursday, would cover all 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities, and 14 miles of city beaches, as well as boardwalks, public marinas and the public pedestrian malls and plazas.
City health officials proposed a smoking ban in parks and beaches last year, but the mayor seemed to be caught off guard by the idea and did not immediately embrace it. But after he and his health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, spent months looking at studies, Mr. Bloomberg delivered a broadside against secondhand smoke at a news conference on Wednesday and said that one poll showed 65 percent of adults were with him.
Research showed, he said, that someone seated within three feet of a smoker — even in the open air — was exposed to roughly the same levels of secondhand smoke as someone sitting indoors in the same situation.
“When New Yorkers and visitors go to parks and beaches for fresh air, there will actually be fresh air for them to breathe,” the mayor said. “Most people don’t like their beaches being used as ashtrays.”
Mr. Bloomberg was something of a pioneer when he proposed the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in 2002, but he noted that hundreds of cities and towns across the country, including Chicago and Los Angeles, have already banned smoking in parks and beaches. And the success of the restaurant and bar ban, which was fiercely debated at the time, has since gained widespread acceptance, and could dampen any outcry over the new proposal.
Still, Jack Regan, 49, an information technology worker and a casual smoker, was not jumping on board. “What do I have to do now, go sit in a hole in the wall?” Mr. Regan asked on Wednesday. “An underground cave? An underground fortress of shame?”
Lula Trainor, 28, a yoga teacher who quit smoking four years ago, pronounced the ban “stupid.”
“It’s outside, it’s not like there’s no ventilation,” she said. “You can always walk away from a smoker, but they should have the choice to smoke.”
But others welcomed the idea. Melissa Sullivan, 32, of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, said her 1-year-old daughter’s playmate had picked a cigarette butt off the ground and almost put it in her mouth. “There is a baby boom in the neighborhood,” Ms. Sullivan said. “As a mom, I don’t want my baby to see smoking and think it’s acceptable.”
The proposal, which is to be introduced by Gale Brewer, a Democratic councilwoman from the Upper West Side, must be reviewed in public hearings before it can be adopted by the Council. Officials said there were some details yet to be worked out, including the amount of a fine, which is expected to be in the $50 range.
While it was known the mayor was thinking of prohibiting smoking at parks and beaches, Wednesday was the first time the mayor mentioned extending such a ban to the urban landscape of outdoor pedestrian areas.
Such plazas and malls have been sprouting across the city. The most celebrated ones are in Manhattan’s commercial and tourist hub — the theater district, Times Square and Herald Square — where stretches of Broadway have been closed to cars and outfitted with cafe tables and chairs.
But the proposal would also cover dozens of other locations, city officials said, including plazas in Dumbo, Chelsea and Lower Manhattan, as well as so-called pedestrian malls in the middle of many large avenues.
At the news conference, the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who supports the ban, was asked whether the police would give tickets to people who smoked while walking across pedestrian malls in crosswalks. She insisted the law was not meant to be a “gotcha.”
“A question I know people are going to ask, ‘Does this include me walking up and down the street?’ ” Ms. Quinn said. “The sidewalks are not part of this proposal.” But, she added, “We do not want the person who’s sitting at the little table — they can’t smoke.”
