New Jersey bans smoking on beaches and in parks, butt ...

LONG BRANCH, N.J. » Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill Friday banning smoking at New Jersey’s public beaches and parks, yet local communities can explicitly opt out and set aside a small section for smoking.

The Democratic governor signed a measure that was passed by the state Legislature last month. While advertised as a ban, it still leaves room for towns to permit smoking in designated areas of their beaches and parks.

Like previous versions of the bill that have failed, the bill doesn’t specify who would be responsible for enforcing it: lifeguards, police or someone else. Murphy said it shouldn’t be lifeguards, but left it to towns to decide enforcement measures.

“A lifeguard is there to save lives, first and foremost, for people in the water” Murphy said. “I don’t want to add an extra burden to the lifeguard and take him or her away from their primary mission.”

But state Senate President Steve Sweeney, who sponsored the bill, said either lifeguards or local police could be called on to enforce the ban when people complain.

“We don’t want to be disrespectful to people who smoke, but we want smokers to be respectful to everyone else who uses the beach, too,” Sweeney said.

The ban, which takes effect in January, also prohibits so-called “vaping” involving the use of electronic smoking devices on beaches or parks.

It allows towns to set up designated smoking areas of 15 percent of a beach or park. Smokers also would be allowed to light up in parking lots.

Fines would start at $250 for a first offense and go up to $1,000 for a third offense.

Karen Blumenfeld, executive director of Global Advisors on Smoking Police, or GASP, said more than half of New Jersey’s more than 500 communities already restrict smoking and vaping on their beaches or in their parks.