LR looks at limiting park smoking
Posted on Sunday, March 16, 2008
A Little Rock Parks Commission panel is exploring the idea of restricting tobacco use in city parks.
Depending on the rule’s final form, smokers could find themselves with fewer locations to light up, and nonsmokers could see a concert or watch children play without breathing in fumes.
“Smoke-free facilities are important, and we want to be a proactive group for Arkansans and their families,” said Scott Daniel, a parks commissioner serving as a spokesman for the advisory committee.
The group also is troubled by the time and money spent picking up cigarette debris and other tobacco products from parks, Daniel said.
Katherine Donald, executive director for the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Arkansas, said a group once picked up 2 gallons of cigarette butts in just 90 minutes from a half-mile section of the Arkansas River Trail known as the Medical Mile, meant to promote community health and wellness.
Committee members would like to see if a policy could be in place by Riverfest, the annual Memorial Day weekend concert festival, although it’s still in the conceptual stages and would require review by the city attorney.
Joe Arnold, an advocate for smoke-free environments, pitched the notion of a smoking policy to the Little Rock Parks Commission in September. Commissioners decided to assemble an advisory committee, which met for the first time this month.
The capital city would have company if it moves forward with the proposal.
“We’re getting to be the odd man out, not the other way around,” Arnold said.
North Little Rock has had a policy restricting tobacco use in parks since 1999. Tobacco use is prohibited within fenced-in athletic facilities. At other facilities, smokers must be 10 feet from the bleachers. Violators can be arrested on a nuisance charge.
Russellville parks also restrict tobacco use by allowing it only in the parking lots. Signs notify visitors of the prohibition inside the park.
Mack Hollis, Russellville’s recreation and parks director, said violators are informed of the rules and generally comply. However, refusal to comply with the rules is a finable offense.
Indoor restraints on smoking are growing in Arkansas, too.
Act 8 of the First Extraordinary Session of 2006 banned indoor smoking in nearly all workplaces. Restaurants and bars can allow smoking only if they agree to allow only those over 21 inside.
The increasing restrictions have had some smokers bristling.
Sam Stathakis Jr., an occasional smoker, testified against the legislation that became Act 8. Stathakis is president of Merritt Wholesale Distributors Inc. in Hot Springs, which distributes products including candy and tobacco.
He said he doesn’t like the idea of even more limits on tobacco use. Smokers generally don’t violate someone’s else space by breathing or blowing smoke in their direction, he said.
“I don’t think it’s the government’s right to tell someone how they should use a legal product,” Stathakis said.
Proponents of a policy restricting tobacco use in Little Rock parks say they recognize smokers have rights but that smoking in parks runs counter to initiatives to promote health and wellness.
Mayor Mark Stodola said he isn’t sure whether any proposed restrictions should be a policy or an ordinance, but he understands the attempt.
“No smoking [in parks ] makes a lot of sense,” Stodola said.
Carolyn Dresler, branch chief for the Arkansas Department of Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation program, said side effects of secondhand smoke include an increased risk of heart attack and lung cancer. For children, it also contributes to inner ear and respiratory infections, she said.
Being outdoors does not eliminate those secondhand smoke risks, Dresler added.
“It is a health issue,” Dresler said. “How significant is still being worked on. There is no safe level of smoking, no safe level of secondhand smoke.”
In North Little Rock, the city parks commission researched and implemented its policy after hearing from Susan Springer, whose child played softball at Burns Park.
Springer has nasal allergies and was bothered by nearby smokers. She first tried sitting away from the bleachers, but that didn’t work. Smokers sat in lawn chairs there, too.
“You couldn’t get away from the cigarette smoke,” Springer said.
Bothered by the smoking that was been done around children, Springer took her cause to the parks commission and asked it to restrict the proximity of smokers to the playing field.
“I appreciate their right to smoke if they want, but to sit with everybody around, that should not take place where others are trying to enjoy an activity,” Springer said.
The North Little Rock park rules don’t apply to open space.
Elizabeth Elizandro, the communications and special events coordinator for the North Little Rock Visitors Bureau — which oversees parks — said her group may consider a restriction depending on what Little Rock does and how successful it is.
As for Riverfest, making the event smoke-free on the Little Rock side of the Arkansas River is a possibility.
The five-year lease for Riverfest’s rental of Riverfront Park is up for renewal. If a long-term lease isn’t signed before the event, Little Rock will issue a permit to cover only this year’s festival, assistant city manager Bryan Day said.
Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter said the city could issue the permit for Riverfest with the condition that smoking isn’t allowed but may instead want to offer organizers the option of banning smoking.
“They can do it if they want to, and we’re not involved in any enforcement of it,” Carpenter said.
But Cheddy Wigginton, chairman of the Riverfest board, said he knew of no way a smoking policy could be enforced without a city ordinance.
“We’re always looking for ways to improve our festival, but the fact of the matter is we simply rent the park,” Wigginton said.
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