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by naptownKrabbi
on Fri Jun 01, 2007 10:05 am |
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http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_4smokefree-2r.5877056jun01,0,6997472.story?coll=all-news-hed
There'll be no smoke where they're throwing 'heat'
Allentown, Bethlehem to restrict tobacco at ball fields, parks, pools.
By Michael Duck Of The Morning Call
The battle against smoking in the Lehigh Valley is moving to a new frontier: the outdoors.
Standing near dozens of new ''no smoking'' signs at the Lehigh Little League fields in west Bethlehem on Thursday, the mayors of Allentown and Bethlehem announced plans to limit or outlaw smoking at their cities' parks and playgrounds and urged municipalities across the Valley to do the same.
''We're going to ban smoking at city pools and parks so that little children aren't exposed to secondhand smoke,'' said Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, a former heavy smoker who lost a lung to cancer. He hopes to present his proposal to City Council in a few weeks, he said.
Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan said his staff also is looking at ways to keep at least some city parks smoke-free. ''Nobody really wants kids to be exposed to that kind of environment,'' he said.
Easton and at least nine other municipalities in Lehigh and Northampton counties already forbid smoking at some or all of their parks, health officials said.
Thursday's announcement, supported by the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley and timed to land on the World Health Organization's 20th annual World No Tobacco Day, follows Gov. Ed Rendell's proposal to ban smoking in bars and restaurants across the state.
But even forcing smokers out of bars and into the elements may not be enough, officials said Thursday.
Although Lehigh Little League games are outside, many spectators complained about people smoking in the stands and getting smoke in the nonsmokers' eyes, said Gene Ashner, the league's president.
''Our biggest problem was…going around after the games and picking up the cigarette butts,'' Ashner said.
Kristen Wenrich, an official with the Bethlehem Health Bureau, said there's also potential danger to children at the parks, both from secondhand smoke and from the example set by coaches and parents who smoke.
''If a coach is sitting there smoking,'' Wenrich said, ''it sends the wrong message.''
Lehigh Little League leases its ball fields at Illick's Mill and Schoenersville roads from the city of Bethlehem. Rather than waiting for city officials to make a change, league officials banned smoking on the fields and in the bleachers on their own. Starting this season, they posted about 40 ''no smoking'' signs and created six designated smoking areas at the outer edges of the complex.
To Ashner's surprise, there's been no backlash, and the restrictions have required almost no effort to enforce.
As the mayors' news conference broke up, Henry Aaron sat on bleachers a few steps away to watch his son's team. Although Aaron is a smoker, the change ''hasn't been any problem,'' he said.
''I always used to smoke in the parking lot, anyway,'' said Aaron, who lives in Hanover Township, Northampton County. Smoking in the stands is just ''obnoxious to people who don't smoke,'' he added.
As for the young players, several said they never noticed the bright white-and-blue ''no smoking'' signs this season, but they thought the restrictions were a good idea anyway.
Patrick Donnelly, 12, also of Hanover, said he never wants to smoke and is glad adults in the stands can't, either. ''I don't like to see children learning from them,'' he said.
According to a survey last year by the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Valley, roughly 78 percent of Valley residents would support a ban on tobacco smoke in indoor public places.
Easton adopted an ordinance forbidding tobacco at city playgrounds in 2000. Last year, Allentown's city council passed a resolution urging lawmakers to adopt a statewide smoking ban. In Bethlehem, Callahan and city council members have pushed to eliminate smoking inside city hall.
Callahan, whose mother died of emphysema after a lifetime of smoking, said he'll also bring up Lehigh Little League's smoking restrictions as a model for North Central Little League, where both of his sons play and where he's a first-base coach.
Changes at city parks will likely take much longer, which is just fine with smokers like Jim Bartholomew of Bethlehem. As he lit up a cigarette Thursday afternoon at the edge of Bethlehem's Monocacy Park, he said banning smokers from parks and outdoor spaces would go too far.
''They should be able to [smoke] -- it's not Russia,'' he said. ''What's going to be next?'
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naptownKrabbi
Enthusiastic Smoker
Joined: Apr 01, 2005
Posts: 356
Location: Pennsylvania
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by linkup
on Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:34 am |
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| The sooner we have all smoking banned everywhere,the sooner we will have our insurrection against a society of fools! |
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linkup
Smoking Lobby Sponsor
Joined: Oct 01, 2005
Posts: 1201
Location: Anywhere but here
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by slap_maxwell
on Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:17 pm |
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How disingeneous these buffoons are...claiming it's all about children when the fact of the matter is they're seeking to eradicate the notion of property rights, plain and simple. No way in hell should I, as a business owner, be compelled to run my business in the manner some flunky bureaucrat (or some thieving, vote-buying politician) wants. At this point in time, non-smokers have officially been given more rights than smokers...after all, any non-smoker is (and was) free to open a non-smoking business to cater to his or her market, yet a smoker cannot excercise that same right when it comes to catering to smokers.
Control property and you have control over everyone...the National Socialist Party knew that decades ago and put it into practice just like America is now doing.
Smokers pay taxes for those parks just as much as non-smokers do. Hell, probably more I'm sure. There is no earthly reason that accomodations for smokers and non-smokers in public areas cannot be reached...except that those in power don't want to admit that. If they did, they'd have to expose their shabby power-lust. |
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slap_maxwell
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