Submitted by Vickey Southern

The City of Foley has adopted an ordinance prohibiting smoking in all outdoor recreational settings. These settings include any place designated for physical activity within the city limits. The Alabama Department of Health (ADPH), Healthy Communities Branch has supplied signs that are in place at various locations to remind the public about the policy. ADPH and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) have partnered together on this initiative to help make all outdoor areas for physical activity in the state tobacco free.

Tobacco-free outdoor areas are important because secondhand smoke is harmful, there is no safe level, children model adult behaviors, and cigarette butts are hazardous and dirty. Secondhand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, 2,000 of which are poisonous and 69 which cause cancer. Children exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to suffer from upper respiratory and ear infections.

Secondhand smoke is especially harmful for children and adults with asthma and other chronic diseases. Smoking in outdoor venues may expose nonsmokers to levels of environmental tobacco smoke as high as or higher than received in indoor spaces where smoking is allowed.

When children see adults smoking in family?friendly places such as parks and playgrounds, they see smoking as acceptable. Parks are about clean air, natural beauty and engaging in healthy activities – tobacco just does not fit in. With this policy, the City of Foley is sending a better message to our children.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in the world. Small children can pick up littered cigarette butts or discarded tobacco plugs and put them in their mouths, which can cause choking, burns, or nicotine poisoning, not to mention the many germs that are associated with these two items. Cigarette butt cleanup is costly to taxpayers, and the butts make parks and playgrounds look dirty and uninviting.

Comments from City Officials: Mayor John Koniar stated that the Foley City Council was unanimous in supporting the non?smoking ordinance that was adopted under enabling Ordinance 929?06 on August 7, 2006 as well as supporting the no smoking signs for the Heritage Park Pavilion approved under enabling Resolution 3901?09 on November 2, 2009. This initiative is a very important one in promoting public awareness about our children’s health and moves one step forward in helping a child limit the risks involved with smoking.