Council Gives Initial OK to a Partial Ban on Smoking in Parks

Sparking debate over health protections and individual rights, the Los Angeles City Council gave preliminary approval Friday to a ban on smoking in most areas of city parks.

The council asked the city attorney’s office to draft an ordinance that would prohibit smoking in outdoor areas where large crowds and children gather, within 50 feet of athletic fields, playgrounds and large picnic areas.

Councilwoman Jan Perry proposed the rule out of concern about the health effects of secondhand smoke on nonsmokers, including children. Perry said she also wants to keep children away from smokers so they do not take up the habit themselves.

“Environmental tobacco smoke poses a health hazard to the population I serve,” she said. “It’s a source of litter and pollution.”

Perry said she was inspired after noticing that many sandboxes in parks were filled with cigarette butts. “When kids see adults smoking in a family-friendly place like a park, it normalizes smoking and causes it to be approved behavior,” she said.

Although the council vote was unanimous and without debate, smokers’ rights groups blasted the action, saying it represents anti-smoking fanaticism run amok and is a violation of their civil rights.

“They are a dictatorship,” said Louis Rosenberg of Woodland Hills, president of the San Fernando Valley Chapter of Californians for Smokers Rights.

“There is an abundance of free air in the parks,” he said. “These people are taking away our civil rights.”

Rosenberg and others said there is no scientific proof that secondhand smoke is a health risk but that radical anti-smoking forces are still intent on outlawing smoking everywhere.

“It has gotten ridiculous,” said Ray Domkus, president of the smokers’ rights group Forces California. “It has gotten out of hand. This is an infringement on our rights. We are all taxpayers, smokers and nonsmokers alike. We pay for the parks and we have a right to smoke in them.”

Health officials say about 50,000 people die nationwide each year from illnesses associated with secondhand smoke, although the worst health risk is from continual exposure in an enclosed area.

Keeping smokers away from young people in parks was supported by Andrea Van Hook of the American Lung Assn. of Los Angeles County.

“We do support any measure that prevents secondhand smoke exposure by children, and since children play in parks, we support such efforts,” she said.

Several anti-smoking activists attended Friday’s meeting, but did not get to speak. Perry said she plans to schedule a public hearing on the issue before the council takes final action.

The rules would apply to much of the 15,000 acres of city parkland in 385 city parks, said Jane Kolb, a spokeswoman for the city Recreation and Parks Department.

The ordinance would give the force of law to a department policy under which smoke-free zones have been created around some playgrounds, Perry said.

The areas chosen for the ban are limited in part because it would be difficult to enforce a complete ban with about 40 park rangers, she said.

If the ban is enacted, Los Angeles would follow the lead of Beverly Hills, which designated its parks smoke-free last month. San Fernando also has restricted smoking in parks.

In Los Angeles, smoking is banned in restaurants, workplaces, elevators and theaters.