City Seeks Ban on Smoking in Parks and Beaches

[The Straight Story]

City Seeks Ban on Smoking in Parks and Beaches


Updated, 6 p.m. | When New York City’s smoking ban took effect in 2003, cigarette and cigar puffers were driven outdoors.

But soon the outdoors — or at least much of it — may no longer be an option.

The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, announced on Monday that the Bloomberg administration would seek to ban smoking in city parks and beaches.

Such bans are still rare, though growing in number. A number of municipalities — particularly in California — have banned smoking in outdoor parks, playgrounds and beaches. In 2007, Los Angeles extended its smoking ban, which already covered beaches and playgrounds, to include municipal parks. Later that year, Chicago banned smoking at its beaches and playgrounds, though smoking is still allowed in many parks. This year, California lawmakers took up a measure to prohibit smoking in all state parks and parts of state beaches.

The New York City proposal would affect more than 1,700 parks, playgrounds and recreational facilities, as well as the city’s seven beaches, which span 1,400 miles of shoreline.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/city-seeks-ban-on-smoking-in-parks-and-beaches/?hp

No really, just ban it indoors and we are ok....

What did we tell folks about a slippery slope/incremental changes?

[Donnachaidh]

1. it's also a good excuse to use when shooing the homeless away

"We're not against the homeless, just the smoking" :eyes:

[BlooInBloo]

47. Good point.

[Robb]

52. Interesting point. Hadn't thought of that. nt

[Pangolin2]

2. Okay, enough is fucking enough. (I smoked for 45 years, quit in 2006)

and I wish everyone who wanted to quit could do it as easily as it was for me (don't ask me, I just decided one day to stop and I did) but I'm fed up with all this nanny shit that attempts to regulate personal private behavior.
Probably somebody will whine "but their smoke will drift over to me"...maybe it will but that car that just drove by made more toxic effluent than a person smoking could produce in a year.

[BuyingThyme]

4. Let's also make it legal for me to take a fire hose to you to get you to shut up.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MineralMan]

35. My willy's bigger than yours....

Can we stop this nonsense, please? Threats, however idle, are provocative, not solutions. Now you're threatening to shoot another DUer? For shame!

[MineralMan]

36. Knock off the threats, please. For pete's sake!

This is entirely unproductive.

[pipi_k]

10. Yeah, the Nanny State is starting to get a little old

I quit smoking in 1996. It's a vile, disgusting, deadly habit.

But damn...banning it in certain outdoors places?


I dunno...that's going a little far

[NeedleCast]

14. They'll never stop

[truebrit71]

67. Hear, hear....

..

[BuyingThyme]

3. Sometimes slippery slopes are good things.

:wooho:

[ixion]

6. speak for yourself

just because it makes you happy, doesn't mean it's right.

[BuyingThyme]

37. It might.

[walldude]

17. Right up until the slope affects you.

Then it will become a problem. woo hoo

[Donnachaidh]

20. that audition for hall monitor go badly in school?

You drive a car -- YOU are killing more people every single day than a smoker does.

[BuyingThyme]

38. Not in the park.

[Xenotime]

64. Exactly. This will force people to be more healthy.

[ixion]

5. yeah, that slippery slope keeps gettin' slipperier

In my opinion, smoking bans are unconstitutional. Tobacco is a legal product, and should not be made quasi-legal with said bans.

I know the anti-smoking zealots will rage against me for this, but it's my opinion.

[Winterblues]

11. It isn't a matter of denying you the RIGHT to smoke it is about

You forcing your smoke onto others if you choose to smoke in Public. Why do you think you have the Right to foul other people's air? You can foul your own air all you wish and no one will say a word..

[Pangolin2]

12. So when a bus goes by, do you shoot it dead?

:eyes:

[Winterblues]

18. When someone robs a bank does that give you the right to rob a store?

I knew it would only take seconds before the original strawman developed. One wrong makes another perfectly acceptable in your wolrd I guess. :shrug:

[Pangolin2]

25. It's interesting how ignorant some people are of SCALE

:eyes:

[madwivoter]

15. Drive a car?

I ride a bike...hm, I think everyone should stop driving their cars because they are fouling the air I have to breathe to get to and from work.

edit: typo

[Winterblues]

19. Electric cars are pretty cool how smokeless tobacco?

:shrug:

[taterguy]

22. Electric cars are powered by electricity. Most power plants emit toxic fumes

Try again

[madwivoter]

54. If you drive an electric car, hats off to you.

Not very common in my neck of the woods.

Try again.

Are you assuming that I smoke?

[Donnachaidh]

21. why do YOU have the right to foul people's air with car exhausts?

Wanna pay the hospital bills for all the people who have to die from your car exhaust?

[DaveinJapan]

26. Air doesn't "belong" to anyone, it's a shared commodity.

And as such, people can "use" it as they see fit so long as it's legal to do so.

Cigarettes aren't the only airborne, avoidable pollutant you know. Some people with allergies have violent reactions to certain perfumes, should we outlaw them?

Cars were already mentioned, that's an obvious one, but what about people with the flu? Should we start ticketing people for "fouling" the air with their germs?

Slippery slope indeed.

[rvablue]

56. I'm sure you are fouling up peoples' air every day. Do you use the same critique for yourself?

Drive a car?

Use electricity -- which is all produced from coal-powered plants?

Please.

[Statistical]

13. What the hell does Constitution have to do with this.

Sex is legal but I can't have sex in a park.
Driving is legal but I can't drive through a playground.
Firearms are legal but I can't pop off a few rounds in the city.

[ixion]

45. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

which anti-smoking zealots gleefully deny smokers.

[abumbyanyothername]

8. Not sure about the whole park and such

but I am all for banning smoking anywhere within 30 yards of . . . ME.

[Winterblues]

9. Slowly but surely Americans comes out of the Dark Ages.

I personally can not understand why anyone would think it okay to allow smoking in public. I could care less what people do in the Privacy of their own homes but in public some things are just not acceptable and IMO Smoking is one of those things. I believe most Americans are beginning to feel the same way..but I am sure it will take another decade or two before a complete ban in Public places will happen.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Donnachaidh]

27. +1

You get the feeling that all these woo hoo folks had dreams of pushing everyone around at school, but didn't pass the audition.... :sarcasm:

[Pangolin2]

28. I'm just glad I don't work for that type of asshole.

...

[walldude]

29. Smoking threads bring out the best don't they?

Even some DU'ers I have grown to respect have strange opinions on this. I can understand the indoor smoking ban but outside? I work on loading docks a lot and have had people come and tell me to put out my cigarette when I was standing behind 3 forklifts spewing propane in my face. It's hilarious.

[Buns_of_Fire]

68. Yes, but I'm afraid I'm consuming WAY more popcorn than is good for me.

(popcorn smilie goes here, naturally...)

[BuyingThyme]

39. That's what you nutjobs said when we finally got you out of the supermarkets.

[Donnachaidh]

23. yeah, right into Prohibition --

THAT worked real well too.... :eyes:

So WHEN are you going to SELL your car?

[abumbyanyothername]

33. Done.

3 years ago.

Best decision I ever made.

[abumbyanyothername]

24. Of course in Santa Monica

you can't smoke inside apartment buildings either.

So the product would be effectively banned, unless you could afford a million dollar mortgage. Which would be OK with me. If marijuana is illegal, if heroin is illegal, if opium is illegal then certainly tobacco ought to be illegal.

[proteus_lives]

31. Authoritarian alert!

What else should be verboten Herr Winterblues?

[ixion]

42. ...

:rofl:

People have been using drugs to alter their reality for thousands of years (well before, and after, the Dark Ages).

Word of Advice: Don't hold your breath.

[Donnachaidh]

30. I wonder how many of the smoking nazis enjoy marijuana?

Of course, THEN you'll get 7000 reasons why grass does NOT cause cancer, etc.... :eyes:

[BuyingThyme]

41. Were they to blow it in your face, you wouldn't have to wonder.

[proteus_lives]

32. Why does anyone buy into this nanny-state bullshit?

Good luck enforcing this "law"!

[BuyingThyme]

40. Yeah, it's so difficult.

[proteus_lives]

44. It's like jay-walking.

I've never seen a cop enforce local ordiances.

You seem hyped about this, hey got a light?

:smoke:

[BlooInBloo]

48. Because DUers aren't against authoritarianism...

They're just against it when it's stuff *they* don't like.

Just like Jane Harman/illegal wiretapping.

Just like the puritans/religious freedom.

It's really just the way Americans are.

[Donnachaidh]

50. it's only the smoking nazis that are creaming themselves over the prospect

Of course, the really brave ones don't even touch the posts about car exhausts. They are too busy wanking themselves thinking of their *victory* over smokers.

Sad, sorry little wankers.... :eyes:

[rvablue]

57. It's simple. Pendantic, holier-than-thou attitudes.

They don't like smoke, so nobody should do it.

Doesn't matter that deisel trucks are rolling past the parks spewing much more dangerous things, no...., all wafts of cigarette smoke must be extinguished so those who don't like it don't have to smell it here and there.

It's stupidity and hypocrisy of the highest degree.

[Arctic Dave]

34. I could care less if people want to smoke,

what pisses me of to no end is the fuckers that think the beach/park/street corner is their personal ashtray.

[ixion]

43. There is a fine against littering

which is what you're referring to, and which I whole-heartedly agree with. However, they don't enforce that one very well, either.

[Winterblues]

51. You somehow don't get the connection that putting smoke in the air is also littering

Trash is trash. Cigarette smoke is trash and it litters the air just as the butts litter the ground. You can throw your butts on the ground in your own home all you wish and no will say a word. The same with the smoke but when you start littering the earth as a whole people will begin to object..I know you feel it is okay because other people do it also but people kill others as well.

[Robb]

53. Well, congratulations.

That's the most fucking absurd post of this thread. And that's a high bar.

Smokers are littering the earth's air? :rofl:

[pipi_k]

60. I'm thinking of killing all the cows for farting methane in my general direction

poo poo poo poo

:scared:

[rvablue]

58. The same reasoning would apply to engine emissions and coal burning.

So, I guess you never drive a car, ride a train or airplane and never turn on a light or use a washer and dryer?

[pipi_k]

59. I can see your point about not liking the cigarette smoke and all but...

here's the thing...

You may consider it "trash", and it does stink and secondhand smoke exposure over a long period can cause various pulmonary illnesses, but I've never once caught a cold, or the flu, or had either of those things turn into bronchitis because of cigarette smoke.

In fact, you know what some of the most dangerous stuff is? Because nobody ever thinks of it that way, I mean...

bird feces.

Last year Mr Pip had some lung issues and, after lots of testing, it was discovered that he had a form of Myco Bacterium Avium, likely contacted from the feces of the wild turkeys that have frequented our backyard for a number of years. Also...from improperly sanitized hot tub water. He now has Sarcoidosis.

Did he smoke for years? Yes. And there's some evidence of damage from that as well, but it's not progressive like the Sarcoid is. I live in fear now every day of him getting some germ or another...not being exposed to a bit of cigarette smoke from people smoking outdoors (most places we go to these days don't allow smoking indoors).

I also live in fear, more from coughing, sneezing people, than I do from cigarette smoke since I have my own bronchitis issues each winter.

I'd rather see people be ticketed for coughing or sneezing rudely into the air around them than people being fined for doing nothing more, in most cases, than stinking up the air around them with their cigarettes.

[ixion]

62. ...

:rofl:

[azmouse]

46. I have no problems with smoking bans in enclosed areas but

banning smoking in the great outdoors is really going too far. I don't smoke, never have, and I don't like the smell of cigarettes but when it's outside the smoke dissipates quickly.

[rucky]

49. Farting smells bad, too.

Maybe we should ban it? Or at least tax the hell out of it.

[JHB]

55. Hey, it contributes to global warming, doesn't it?

Methane's a greenhouse gas.

[pipi_k]

61. Au contraire, mon frere...

George Carlin always said that our own farts smell OK...


:7

[rucky]

63. So do my own cigs.

:)

[Xenotime]

65. Now if we could just ban it period.

[The Straight Story]

66. Yeah, and abortion while we are at right. Rw/Lw Fundies - no real difference

Enforce your religion on others...

[proteus_lives]

69. Yeah, that always works.

Look at the success of Prohibition! And the war on drugs!

:eyes: