New York! Bans Again.

We have discussed New York quite a bit over recent months with all the smoking bans happening. There are the condominiums that banned smoking inside the building, the fight to ban electronic cigarettes, bans on plaza sidewalks, and now you best not light up outdoors. The parks are off-limits!

As of Monday, New Yorkers and tourists can face a fifty-dollar fine if caught smoking at any of the 1700 parks, fourteen-miles of beach, or Times Square. The goal is to eliminate exposure to second-hand smoke, litter, and reduce the number of deaths; reportedly around 50,000 per year.

According to a CNN article, New York isn’t the first place to ban smoking in parks or on beaches. There were 105 municipalities that banned smoking in public areas first.

I remember being a young child and my Mom smoking in the grocery store. She stomped out her cigarette on the floor of the produce section and I picked it up and handed it to her, informing her she was littering. I didn’t see her smoke another cigarette in a grocery store after that, but litter is an issue. Cigarette butts or stubs never degrade, only breaking apart after about twelve years. With all the people who frequent New York City, that is more litter than they need. If everyone put their stubs in the trash receptacle, at least that reasoning would be shot down.

According to ButtsOut, 4.3 trillion cigarette butts are discarded every year. Of those stubs, thirty percent end up as litter. That’s 1.9 trillion cigarette butts floating around streets, parks, lakes, rivers, beaches, and oceans. That doesn’t make a popular destination beautiful.

Many hospitals now require smokers to be 100 feet away from entrances. The reasoning is to limit exposure of second-hand smoke to people who might suffer. Asthmatics frequent hospitals and a common trigger to asthma attacks is cigarette smoke. It makes sense to consider the health of others when smoking and bans are in place because not everyone thinks about those around them first. And this is an addiction; feed the monster… NOW!

I’m not picking on New York. They are hot in the press for making or attempting to make many changes to benefit the health of the state’s residents. I can’t say I totally disagree with banning of smoking in public venues, however I do think that the Assembly and Senate are hastily making choices without looking at all the facts.

I’ll take it back to the electronic cigarette. The Safe Cig is an alternative way to smoke and does not produce any combustion by-products including smoke. There is no pollution. With one atomizer being the equivalent of a pack of cigarettes, the amount of waste making way to the landfills is greatly reduced. All I ask is a little thought go into all of these bans before smokers feel like they are being discriminated against… or is it that way now?