The city of Boston is taking steps to decrease tobacco use in city parks and recreation areas, joining a nationwide smoke-free initiative.
Throughout the country, 574 communities have enacted smoke-free public park laws, according to a study released by the American Nonsmokers’ Right Foundation.
The study includes only parks that are completely smoke-free, meaning that there are no designated sections or times for permitted tobacco smoking. It also did not account for public areas where smoking is lawful within a certain number of feet from playgrounds.
Fourteen of the cities are located in Massachusetts, including Cambridge and Somerville, but not Boston in its entirety. However, Mayor Thomas Menino prepared to erect no-smoking signs in 130 public parks throughout the city, according to The Boston Globe.
“I know that nothing we put on the law books could be as strong as a parent who is trying to protect their kids from secondhand smoke and cigarette debris,’’ Menino said at Charlestown’s Peter Looney Park, according to The Globe.
The signs will be intended to protect the youth from secondhand tobacco inhalation. The city is also taking more steps to eradicate tobacco smoke from both public and private areas. On Oct. 17, Menino joined a collaboration to build a $170 million luxury high-rise near Downtown Crossing. The team includes the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the Kensington Investment Company and representatives from Chinatown.
“Complementing the Mayor’s smoke-free initiative, the Kensington will be smoke-free and designed to a LEED Gold Standard,” said Edward Lewis, senior vice president of the Kensington Investment Company in a press release.
Secondhand smoke, which contains about 70 cancer-causing chemicals, can lead to asthma, ear infections, respiratory infections and sudden infant death syndrome in children and infants, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC also lists frequent pneumonia, bronchitis, wheezing and coughing as potential effects of tobacco smoke. In adults, secondhand smoke can cause heart disease and lung cancer, according to the CDC.
By 2012, all public housing in Boston will be smoke-free, adding to tobacco prohibition in workplaces and restaurants.
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