City focusing on education before fines with new outdoor smoking bylaw

Concerned parents and anti-smoking advocates hoping for a swift crackdown on tobacco use in city playgrounds and sports fields will have to wait a little longer.

Almost a month after city hall banned smoking near stomping grounds for children, officials have not fined any violators, though they have received three complaints. City officials say they are still trying to educate the public about the new rules, which came into effect Aug. 1. They expect to have a better idea in September when they will start handing smokers $100 fines for lighting up within five meters of outdoor pools, skate parks and other outdoor play areas. At Riley Park in Hillhurst, Darnell Fortune threw his butt to the ground before walking into the fenced-in park surrounding the wading pool, but not because of the new city rules. He said he didn’t want to smoke around children.

“I have kids of my own, and I don’t smoke in the house and I don’t smoke in my vehicle,” said Fortune, who called the rules a cash grab. Abdul Rafih, acting manager of Animal and Bylaw Services, said city hall’s goal is not to hand out tickets, but to encourage smokers to freely comply with the newly amended bylaw. He said it’s why officials have allowed for a grace period, to give Calgarians time to adjust. For now, the city’s roughly 100 peace officers and bylaw officials will respond to complaints, but instead of handing out fines they will tell whomever is around about the new rules, Rafih said. If they see violators on their regular patrols, they’ll do the same thing. City officials are also working with sports organizations and community groups to get the word out. “The fact that there have only been three complaints may be a strong indicator that people are being respectful in those areas,” Rafih said. There are concerns that city hall will have a hard time enforcing the bylaw, given that smokers may have enough time to butt out their cigarettes by the time officials respond to a complaint. “We just don’t have enough bylaw officers to be able to have them drop everything they’re doing to run and catch someone with a cigarette in their hand,” said Ald. Jim Stevenson, who had voted against the bylaw amendment.

“The jury’s out as to how it’s going to work. I don’t see it being very effective, but they will have to do what they can with it.” Jessica Vanderhoef, a non-smoker who sat near a playground in Riley Park on Monday, said she supported the anti-puffing rules, though she was disappointed to learn officials had not started enforcing them. She said city hall should have workers patrolling parks, if they’re handing out tickets for other violations. “There should be some kind of consequence for smoking around children,” said Vanderhoef, who was with her five-year-old son, Jacob. City hall had taken the cue from other Canadian cities, such as Toronto, Edmonton and Grand Prairie, that ban smoking close to certain outdoor areas. In the United States, authorities had prohibited smoking in almost 850 parks and on 150 beaches by 2011, according to a recent study by Columbia University. Those bans were based on concerns with second-hand smoke, pollution caused by butts and the influence on youngsters watching adults smoke. But the study’s authors concluded there is no concrete evidence to support these claims.

They suggest authorities should instead make the case that the bans “de-normalize” the bad habit and encourage smokers to butt out more often. In Calgary, the ban was first proposed last November by Ald. Andre Chabot, a lifetime smoker who suffers from lung problems. The Canadian Cancer Society, which is among a coalition of health and community groups called Smoke-Free Calgary, backs the ban as a means to reduce children’s exposure to smoking, in the hopes it reduces the likelihood they will pick up the habit. “There is no safe level of second-hand smoke exposure,” said Sarah Hawkins, a public policy analyst with the cancer society. “And while it can be harder to monitor outdoors, we know that it can be a harm.”

Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/calgary/Education+trumps+enforcement+outdoor+smoking+bylaw/8835726/story.html