Smoking ban aired at board meeting

Feelings split on butting out

RADNOR » Butt out, people. Commissioner Jake Abel is suggesting a ban on smoking in township parks.

“We should be promoting healthy lifestyles for our children,” Abel said, when asked about it. “We want families to enjoy our public parks but parents will be reluctant to utilize these areas if they have to deal with issues like secondhand smoke. There are signs that prohibit me from playing soccer on township tennis courts but there is nothing stopping residents from smoking there – this does not make sense.

“A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a neighbor telling me she is no longer comfortable with her teenage son visiting the skate park because smoking is allowed there,” he added. “I do not want a parent feeling this way. I believe the Board has a responsibility to provide a healthy and safe environment for all residents, and I look forward to working with our committees on this issue.”

At its April 16 meeting, the Board of Health took up the topic, with some members embracing a ban while others less anxious to deprive people of their ability to light up outdoors. The BOH is expected to make its recommendation at its May 21 meeting.

BOH Member Dr. Amit Khanna said that in the balance of people’s right to smoke and the potential harm of that smoke to others, he favors regulation.

“If you go out to lunch or brunch on Sunday morning and you have an eight month old child in a stroller beside you, that eight month old can’t really decide to move. And then there’s smoking at the next table (at an outdoor restaurant). How do we balance the rights of that situation and similar type situations? It gets hard so I think I’m in favor of enforcing, for the most part, nonsmoking, aggressive rules but maybe within reason to allow designated smoking areas.”

With a smoking ban in the parks and no designated smoking areas, smokers might go of site into people’s driveways to smoke, he said.

“I feel I have to take a strong position against smoking in public areas,” Khanna said.

Chairman Dr. Andrew Forman said, “It’s not only the fumes and making other people ill from second-hand smoke, it’s also the matter of children seeing smoking everywhere, the butts, having trash facilities and people throwing butts in the trash,” he said. He has seen people outside hospitals standing near Dumpsters and smoking, he said.

Member Joan Capuzzi, a veterinarian, suggested that the township poll restaurant owners before banning outdoor smoking. Studies have shown that cigarette smoke dissipates after six feet, she said.

“It’s a personal right you’re talking about taking away,” said Capuzzi, who said she is not a fan of cigarettes. “The whole issue of taking people’s rights is huge.” She said that she would like to see more scientific evidence before an ordinance like this is enacted. “I want to know how many people in this township even smoke,” she said. “I don’t see people smoking.” Perhaps, a count might be done of cigarette butts, she said. “I don’t think we should be making rules without knowing what we’re dealing with.”

And as for children emulating random smokers in parks, Capuzzi said, studies show that kids start smoking because of their parents, family relationships, abuse in the home, peer pressure, personal issues and psycho-social issues. Parents’ income and also concerns about gaining weight are also factors, she said. After Disney World has designated smoking areas.

“I think it’s a non-issue,” she said. “I think it puts a great enforcement burden on the police…How far are we going to go?”

As for smoking at outdoor restaurant venues, that should be up to the owner, she said. And if people don’t like being around smokers they will “vote with their wallets and their feet,” she said. “It does seem all too Orwellian to me.”

Commissioner Sean Farhy was at the meeting and favors the ban.

“Cigarette smoking has no redeeming value unless you’re a shareholder of Phillip Morris, said Farhy, who said he smoked for 20 years before quitting. “It has not redeeming value whatsoever.” The township is “not taking away anybody’s rights.” People can smoke at home, he said. Children “shouldn’t be subject to that.” Farhy said an umpire told an adult with the opposing team to leave and not to smoke around the kids at a baseball game at Encke Park, he said.