Proposed Conway parks smoking ban softened
A proposed ordinance intended to address air quality and litter issues at Conway parks by banning smoking has been revised, calling now for the creation of designated smoking areas rather than banning tobacco use outright.
Consideration of the revised ordinance is on the Conway City Council agenda for Tuesday night’s meeting.
Aldermen discussed in January an ordinance banning the use of any sort of tobacco anywhere in city parks, with the need for such an ordinance evidenced at that meeting by a pair of plastic jugs filled with cigarette butts collected from Laurel Park — mostly near the playground — by members of the Asian Pacific Coalition for Smoke Free Arkansas.
Parks Director Brian Knopp said on Saturday that his office has “hardly gotten any comment from the general public” since the subject came up in January, but some park department employees have been concerned about it.
“We have several employees who do smoke or do dip, and if you’re at work for 8 hours a day, where you can’t smoke or dip in the vehicle, if they couldn’t smoke or dip in the parks, some of them were going to be a little concerned about that,” Knopp said.
Another group that Knopp said he hadn’t yet heard from, but would expect to if an outright ban on tobacco was effected, are the adults who play sports on city ballfields.
Most of the athletes frequenting city parks are former or current college ballplayers, Knopp said, “and while it’s not a requirement,” a degree of smokeless tobacco use among men on the baseball or softball field is typically a given.
While a designated smoking spot with a cigarette butt disposal station would seem a reasonable solution to employees, adult athletes or visitors who need to step aside and indulge their habit, it can’t be so reasonably expected for a softball game to stop for several minutes while many of the players gather around a communal spitoon erected at the park’s edge.
It’s here, Knopp said, that some “common sense” will have to be used in enforcing any parks tobacco policy.
“The only problem we have with (smokeless tobacco) is when people spit in trash cans or on the sidewalk,” Knopp said, going on to say that, as far as he’s concerned, someone spitting into a bottle with a cap or a disposable cup with paper towel “wadding” to prevent spills wouldn’t be posing a public nuisance.
“Of course however the council wants to go, we’ll go in that direction,” he added, “but I do think some common sense will be used in it.”
(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by e-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)
Comments (21)
Add commentDoes anyone have a clue?
...obviously you don't. flip-flops? make up? Jewlery? Geez get real. I don't see any of the frivolous items you mentioned that are as harmful to young children as second hand smoke is.
I do not want my toddlers around second hand smoke when I take them to the park. Second hand smoke causes asthma, chronic bronchitis, ear infections, lower respiratory, and other health problems in small children....And there is no "safe" level of second hand smoke, for those who think its okay to stand 10ft away while puffing it up.
http://www.cdc.gov/Features/ChildrenAndSmoke/
Yes drinking and driving is a BIG issue too, and needs to be dealt with as well. But, do not put down the proposed smoking ban/restrictions just to refortify your own crusade concerning alcohol.
Lacks Common Sense
First, I want to mention I do not smoke.
Now having said that....this ordinance lacks common sense .... show me one rational study that supports the theory that secondary smoke in the outdoors causes asthma, chronic bronchitis....etc. There are studies that show the ill effects of smoking in a confined area, I agree with them. This ordinance bans from our parks etc. smoking, chewing, use of smokeless tobacco, burning of anything outdoors.....
here is the ordinance ending statement....
....this ordinance is necessary for the protection of the peace, health and safety of the Citizens of Conway, and therefore, an emergency is declared to exist...
An emergency is declared to exist, give me a break! This ordinance resulted from a group of kids from LR Central High who came to Conway...allegedly picked up a bunch of cigarette butts in our parks and showed them to the CC complaining about the ill effects of smoking in parks.
Who will be charged with monitoring and enforcing the new ordinance? Why put something in place that will be impossible to enforce? Will we hire someone to walk around parks, trails, etc. to see who and where people smoke or chew? If they are true to form, I bet they have to hire someone to do this.
Another form of waste of our good tax money and the time of to hear, discuss, write and discuss and if passed...enforce the ridiculous ordinance.
When you complain you just
When you complain you just make us want to smoke more. Your child coughing and spreading all kinds of germs in the air bothers me. Will you stay 10 feet away from me with your child i dont like the smell of its dirty diaper any more than you like the smell of smoke its not all about you.
Its not a complaint...its a fact.
Comparing the smell of a diaper to the carcinogen effects and illnesses from second hand smoke?...oh I can tell you are a real smart one.
You are right about one thing though....it's not all about me. Its about the safety and welfare of children. So weighing your right to be a nicotine junkie, cigarette addict against the risks to children? Yeah, my vote goes for the kids.
ditto
I agree, it's not for forum readers, it's for the kids. You can complain all you want but it's the right thing to do. Actually, the right thing to do is outlaw cigarettes, people complain about banks/oil companies/insurance companies, but tobacco companies make billions of dollars profit by slowly killing Americans.
I dont care what you want.
I dont care what you want. Want your going to get is me smoking outdoors kids or not. Thanks for the inspiration and drive to keep it up i will with vigor
My hands have nicotine on
My hands have nicotine on them not fecal matter
Please do smoke more glowing farm.
I hope you smoke several packs a day. For that will only mean that soon enough you wont be able to walk outside without gasping, and the sooner you will die of cancer or emphysema and further help clean up the gene pool. :)
oh and "My hands have nicotine on them not fecal matter"???? PLEASE do not ever breed...It sounds like your blood line contains too much inbreeding as it is. LMAO!
Ashtrays anyone?
It seems to me that if someone picked up all those cigarette buts at the park then the most common sense thing to do is to install ashtrays around the park so the butts don't hit the ground.
As far as smoke getting to kids. Smoke goes up, kids are short. Besides that, when was the last time you took your kids to the park and all they done was stand by you and watch the other kids go play.
I think if we are going to ban anything at the park, I think we should ban the birds and bugs. I mean all that crap that comes out of them is nasty, and it gets all over the play equipment! Are you really taking your kids to play in that crap!
Smoking
You know it's bad for you but you do it anyway. Well hell, free country.
You know it's bad for us, but you do it anyway. It ain't that free. (Hey guess what, you can't serve me rat poison either.)
Your laziness has you huffing away despite all the reasons not to (and the availability to means to quit) and your laziness has you throwing the butts on the ground where they have a half-life something like plutonium -- and I have to pay tax dollars to get them picked up because you lazy slobs can't, won't, field-strip and take 'em to a trash can. This despite you knowing you're littering. _And_ I have to saddle the public-health cost of you blowing poison.
And you want to tell me about your rights?
What about my rights? You telling me you have rights to suck down poison and litter because you feel like it? Despite knowing better you do it anyway? That's a right?
Hey, guess what: You don't have the right to drove 90 mph through my neighborhood either. You don't have the right to set fire to houses you don't like, and you don't have the right to breath your poisons on me and defile the ground we share. You don't.
It's 2010, there, black lung. Get with the times.