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CAPITAL REGION
Battle against smoke moves outside
Push is on for smoking bans
BY SARA FOSS Gazette Reporter

   Not too long ago, Sarah Cummings noticed something she’d never seen before.
   A group of adults, children in tow, were smoking at the Niskayuna Town Pool. Cummings, the pool’s manager, scanned the rules. Nowhere did it say that smoking was prohibited.
   So Cummings purchased “No Smoking” signs and hung them up.
   “We have about 100 people here every day,” she said. “Eighty-fi ve percent of those people are younger. Smoking didn’t seem appropriate. By putting up the signs, I put my foot down, and said, ‘In a family environment, at the town pool, there’s no smoking.’ ”
   With indoor smoking bans now commonplace — New York banned smoking in most workplaces, including restaurants and bars, in 2003 — anti-smoking groups are stepping up efforts to bar or restrict smoking in outdoor places such as concert venues, parks, pools, beaches and playgrounds. They say they are motivated by concerns about health, litter and overall quality of life.
   Last year, The Great Escape & Splashwater Kingdom amusement park in Lake George implemented a new policy making all but a few designated areas smoke-free. There is now a smoking-and-alcohol-free family zone on the lawn at concerts at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. In 2006, the Washington County town of Hudson Falls made municipal parks smoke-free; several years ago, the town of Clifton Park made its pools smoke-free.
   But it’s possible that the New York State Fair in Syracuse made the biggest splash of all when it announced earlier this summer that it would no longer allow vendors to sell tobacco products on site.
   “In an effort to continue to make New York state the healthiest state in the nation, we have determined that the sale of tobacco products is not appropriate on the New York State Fairgrounds, and we want to encourage people to participate in a healthy lifestyle,” fair Executive Director Dan O’Hara said when the ban was first announced.
IS A BAN NEEDED?
   Not everyone believes that such steps are necessary.
   The Schoharie County Sunshine Fair, which begins Tuesday and runs through Sunday, has never considered banning smoking or restricting the sale of cigarettes, said Mike Montario, fair director in charge of concessions and vice president of the Cobleskill Agricultural Society. Although no one will be selling cigarettes at this year’s Sunshine Fair, it’s not because of any new policies; instead, a longtime cigarette vendor decided not to return to the fair and nobody is stepping in to take her place, he said.
   “We feel people come to enjoy the fair,” Montario said. “My personal opinion is that if people want to smoke outdoors, that’s fine. I don’t know how we would enforce [a ban on outdoor smoking].”
   Montario attends meetings of the New York State Association of Agricultural Fairs; he said there’s never been a discussion about prohibiting outdoor smoking or cigarette sales.
   “We don’t really want to limit all the rights people have,” he said. “Just move away from the smoker.”
   Two local groups, the Southern Adirondack Tobacco-Free Coalition and the Capital District Tobacco-Free Coalition, recently completed community surveys showing that a growing number of residents support restricting outdoor smoking. In 2005, 34.3 percent of Schenectady County residents said they supported banning smoking in public parks and outdoor recreation areas; this year, that number had grown to 47.9 percent. In the 2007 survey, more than 55 percent of county residents supported banning smoking at public beaches, 71.6 percent supported banning smoking around entryways, 78.3 percent supported banning smoking at playgrounds and 78.7 percent supported banning smoking at city pools.
   “People more and more understand the dangers of secondhand smoke,” said Judy Rightmyer, program director for the Capital District Tobacco-Free Coalition. “It’s been four years after the [state law banning indoor smoking] was passed, and people are used to an environment where there isn’t smoking. So when they’re exposed to smoking, it’s like, ‘I don’t really like this.’ ”
GROWING SUPPORT
   Rightmyer said the Capital District Tobacco-Free Coalition will soon ramp up its efforts to restrict outdoor smoking; the group plans to hire someone to head up those efforts and hopes to work closely with counties and cities.
   “It looks like it will be an easy sell, because there’s so much public support for it,” Rightmyer said.
   The Southern Adirondack Tobacco-Free Coalition has worked with local fairs on tobacco issues. Last year, the Saratoga County Fair signed a policy saying that it would not accept sponsorship or promotions from the tobacco industry; this year, the Washington County Fair enacted a similar policy, said Margaret LaFrance, program director of the Southern Adirondack Tobacco-Free Coalition.
   “It makes sense from an environmental and health view,” she said. “Tobacco butts contain toxins that seep into the earth and last for a long time.”
   Annie Tegan, senior program manager for the California-based Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights, said a groundbreaking report released by the U.S. Surgeon General in 2006 helped spur some of the recent efforts to ban outdoor smoking. The report said that secondhand smoke dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and lung cancer in non-smokers and can be controlled only by making indoor spaces smoke-free.
   “There’s no safe level of exposure,” Tegan said. “In places where people congregate, they think it’s important to have smoke-free air. People like smoke-free air. They’re enjoying it. ” At the same time, “It’s not about the smoker,” she said. “It’s about the smoke. We’re not trying to demand that anyone stop smoking entirely.”
   More than 500 cities have passed laws banning smoking at public parks, beaches and plazas, while about 600 communities have enacted reasonable distance laws that restrict smoking near the entrances to certain buildings, such as hospitals, where smoking is prohibited, Tegan said. About 300 cities have also banned smoking in outdoor venues such as stadiums and outdoor theaters.
   “It’s happening in all corners of the country,” she said. “After cities passed indoor smoking bans, people began seeing the health improvements and turned their attention to outdoors. We’re just now coming into a time when people are demanding that outdoor areas be smoke-free.”
CLEANER AIR, SIDEWALKS
   These efforts don’t sit well with everyone.
   Audrey Silk, who in 2000 founded the smokers’ rights organization New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, disputed the findings on secondhand smoke.
   “You’re not harming anyone outside,” Silk said. “There’s no evidence you’re harming anyone outside. ... Smoke dissipates into the air within seconds. It’s harming no one. Is that three seconds every day going to hurt them?”
   But one California city saw plenty of reasons, not all of them health-related, to take the lead in the effort to prohibit smoking in public spaces.
   In 2006, the city of Calabasas, Calif., passed what at the time was considered the most sweeping smoking ban in the country: a ban on smoking in all outdoor places, including sidewalks and streets, except for small outdoor “smoker outposts.” The city council, which voted unanimously in favor of the law, said it wanted to protect children from secondhand smoke, protect the public from smoking and tobacco-related litter and promote the family-friendly atmosphere of the town’s public places.
   Diane O’Connor, a spokeswoman for the Great Escape, said the amusement park’s smoking ban was enacted to “create a cleaner park environment.” Six Flags, the company that owns the Great Escape and a number of other amusement parks throughout the country, banned smoking at all its parks.
   “We’ve heard from a lot of guests who really appreciate it,” she said.
   Smoking is allowed in a few places, including behind the Red Garter Saloon in Ghost Town and next to Thunder Alley.
   Last month, the state Department of Health released a study showing a dramatic drop in secondhand smoke exposure since the state’s Clean Indoor Air Act took effect in 2003. The law has reduced non-smoking adults’ exposure to tobacco smoke by almost half, according to the report.  

  
  
  

Once they get this passed then they can arrest anyone that's seen smoking anywhere. I'm an ex smoker but I still feel it's the right of the individual to choose to smoke or not, it's their life.

I AM a smoker damn it! Yet I will repect the laws and the wishes at people's homes. But to say not to smoke outside because of 'second hand smoke' even makes the brightest person look down right stupid.

Once the Dems/libs get a hold of a cause they don't care whose rights they take away in order to achieve their goals.

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Once the Dems/libs get a hold of a cause they don't care whose rights they take away in order to achieve their goals.

Dems/libs pander to one bleeding heart group only. The unfortunate part of this is that these poor, pathetic, bleeding heart people are actually convinced by the dem/libs that they are poor, deprived, 'underserved', 'unbanked', underinsured and that the government will 'make it all better'! PAALLLEEEZZZZ!

OOOhhhh,,,,no smokers outside,,,,,but, dont forget to wash your fruits and vegetables and buy irradiated meat and hormone filled milk at your local grocer that you purchase and bring INTO your home AND FEED TO YOUR CHILDREN(certainly we cant afford those organic things--even after they are rained on by acid rain)......

I'm just not feelin' it and I dont smoke.......

Like people are going to get sick from people smoking outside????  Gee, when they came through to spray for west nile, they informed everyone ahead of time so they could close their windows and shut their air conditionersoff . And after that 'spray job', it took 2 to 3 years for the fire flies to comeback!! GIVE ME A BREAK!

It's no wonder we had to spray for west nile virus as half of Rotterdam is built on a swamp and there is standing water everywhere that's just perfect for mosquitoes to breed in. They spray and poison all of us and they're worried about some people smoking outside. Remember a post on the thread for Masullo Estates about someone burning trees and brush just how much smoke was put into the air with 3 bonfires burning all day and the police did nothing and it's against the law to burn without a container. Give me a break some people are just plain ridiculous in their thinking.

Quoted from bumblethru

Like people are going to get sick from people smoking outside????  

Ever try to walk out the door of Rotterdam Square where you take a right immediately coming out of K-Mart?  Now, that's a place that you'll get sick with people smoking outside.  People light up as they're walking out the door (because of the protection from the wind), then they're essentially all blowing it right back at the door.  And yes, because of that, I DO sometimes just about get sick, thank you very much.

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Secondhand smoke harmful — even outside

   The [Sept. 28] editorial “Park smoking ban goes too far,” calls into question legislation that would protect public health and well-being by restricting the locations in which individuals subject others to the deadly effects of secondhand smoke. Make no mistake: secondhand tobacco smoke kills. In fact, according to the U.S. Surgeon General, “there is no safe level of exposure” to secondhand smoke.
   Did you know that, because their lungs are so much smaller, children breathe in 50 percent more air than an adult? It is true, and it is why children are more susceptible to the dangers associated with inhaling tobacco smoke — even if outdoors. That is why we support legislation which removes these pollutants from an environment where children and families enjoy recreational activities.
   Tobacco smoke is a known asthma trigger. If enacted into law, this legislation could mean the difference of having an asthma attack — or not — for an individual enjoying the benefits of our public parks. Additionally, secondhand smoke is responsible for 54,000 deaths each year in the United States. In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies secondhand smoke as a known carcinogen.
   It is important that we act to avert these preventable problems by moving quickly to adopt smart, progressive laws that keep the dangers of secondhand smoke away from children and adults. Our citizens should not be forced to inhale another person’s toxic cigarette smoke.
If you know someone who does smoke, urge and encourage them to seek treatment and kick the habit. One easy way to start down that path is to pick up the phone and call the New York State Smokers’ Quitline at 1-866-NYQUITS (1-866-697-8487).
MICHAEL SEILBACK
Albany
The writer is senior director of Public Policy and Advocacy for the American Lung Association of New York  

  
  
  

How about:

Power plants
Automobiles
Ozone
Sulfuric acid in aerosol form
Fossil fuel combustion
Mining operations
Asbestos fibers from brake linings
Diesel engine immissions
Arsenic
Asbestos
Chromium
Nickle
Benzene
Electrical power plants
Radon

The list is endless.

True, but it's easier to take the very thing that that the government wants to pay health care with and BAN IT EVERYWHERE! The good old cigarette!!!

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Cobleskill smoking ban
By: Mark Repasky

COBLESKILL, N.Y. -- The Village of Cobleskill may already be a good place to live, but Mayor Michael Sellers wants to make it a little bit better. That is if you are not a smoker.

“We want to be a family friendly community, we want to be friendly to youth and young people and smoking cigarettes is not an activity that I think should be around young people,” said Michael Sellers, Cobleskill Mayor.

So he said it's time to quit smoking in the villages three parks. Although he admits the law will be hard to enforce he said it's more about education and keeping cigarettes out of the hands and eyes of children.

The Village of Cobleskill may already be a good place to live, but Mayor Michael Sellers wants to make it a little bit better.

“Smoking kills people and we've got to be honest about that and the government sector has a role to play in educating people what is healthy and let people know and maybe enforce a law that would keep them from participating in activity that wouldn't be good in front of younger people,” said Sellers.

Residents have mixed reactions. Some said this park already has too many rules and the village is overstepping its bounds.

“I think it's a bunch of nonsense because you're out in the outdoors. I can see if it was enclosed but you're outdoors,” said Alan Surnear, Cobleskill resident.

Gabby Capone, a student at SUNY Cobleskill, said she would support the measure because it may help her cut back on her own bad habit.

“I don't smoke in public places and it would keep me from smoking here,” said Capone.

One thing all sides agree on is the problem these messy cigarette butts create. Though this smoker had a plan of his own.

“They should put out ashtrays so people can put them in there,” said Surnear.

That seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

    

Oh palleeezzzz!

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Smokers are often inconsiderate, so outdoor ban needed

   I would like to comment on your Sept. 26 editorial, “Park smoking ban goes too far,” regarding the proposed outdoor smoking ban in Cobleskill. Since we recently took our grandchildren to the Cobleskill Fair, and shared the fairgrounds with smokers, I feel qualified to respond to your comments.
   Our experience was the worst we have had using the same outdoor space as smokers. The majority of them were inconsiderate, rude and downright nasty to those in the near vicinity — without regard to the discomfort of others.
   They walked in crowded areas, swinging their arms with lighted cigarettes in their hands, making it difficult to navigate the walkways with small children in danger of being burned.
   They stood in close proximity, in line for children’s rides, blowing smoke over their shoulders, into the faces of our grandchildren and us, flicking ashes wherever it was convenient for them, without consideration that it made a very uncomfortable experience for the rest of us. They threw lit butts on the ground, causing a risk to those wearing sandals. It also seemed an extremely dangerous practice, considering the dry hay, papers and other fire hazards at the fairgrounds.
   In other words, the difficulty was not only from secondhand smoke — but all of the above. The saddest part of this, for me, was that most of these people were parents and grandparents with little children who obviously have this exposure every day. To me, this borders on abuse.
   I know many people who still smoke, and most of them do so with consideration to those around them. Since it is impossible to control the way people deal with their individual smoking behavior, it seems a greater infringement on the rights and safety of others to allow them to continue in this manner than it is to assign designated smoking areas for those who choose to continue the practice. Not everyone will apply common courtesy to their personal habits.
I wonder if it will take a major tragedy for necessary change to occur.
EDWARD GRINTER
Rotterdam