New York City Passes A Tough California-Style Outside Smoking Ban At All Public Parks And Beaches…Nicotine Addicts Throwing A Fit!

In three months time after Mayor Bloomberg of New York City signs it into law,it will become illegal in the city of New York to smoke outdoor in public parks,beaches, marinas, board walks and pedestrian plazas like Times Square.(WSJ)

A sign of the times....

 

The ban prohibits smoking in all 1,700 city parks and on its 14 miles of beaches.(Sun)

The fine, if caught smoking at any of the restricted areas, will be a hefty $50.-$100. on up, for a first time offense.

 

Mayor Micheal Bloomberg

 

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said after winning with a 36-12 vote: “This summer, New Yorker’s who go to our parks and beaches for some fresh air and fun will be able to breathe even cleaner air and sit on a beach not littered with cigarette butts.”(Source)

This is the latest salvo in the city’s California-style anti-smoking crusade, and is the harshest law passed so far, ever since Mayor Michael Bloomberg convinced the city lawmakers to approve a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces and park playgrounds in 2003.(Source)

The intent of the ban is to prevent the harmful effects of secondhand smoke for children.

The city’s health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley states that…“Cigarettes kill some 7,500 New Yorker’s every year, and thousands more suffer smoking-related strokes, heart attacks, lung diseases and cancers,”….“New York City’s Smoke Free Air Act has greatly reduced the harm that cigarettes cause to nonsmokers. By expanding the act to cover parks and beaches, we can reduce the toll even further….”

 

City’s health commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley

 

West coast rival Californian’s have been dealing with a city to city smoking ban’s for years now, and New Yorker’s can look at what happened since the ban’s in California, and the statewide indoor smoking ban, as an example of what’s in store for them.(Video)

A statewide ban on smoking in California state parks and beaches,is being considered, but was vetoed by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, so you can still light up at state beaches there, for now.(HuffPo)

Since January 1, 1995, smoking has been banned in all enclosed workplaces in California, including restaurants, bars and bathroom stalls.(Source)

You can not smoke outside within 20 feet of the entrance or operable window of a public building, and effective January 1, 2008, smoking in a moving vehicle while in the presence of a minor (18 years or younger) is an infraction; the charge is not serious enough to be pulled over, and only can be cited along with a stricter offense, such as a moving violation or traffic accident.(Wiki)

Studies show that the predicted negative economic impact of the ban has not materialized, and that the health of the staff members at the banned establishments has improved tremendously.(Source)

Some continue to feel that it is an over reaching government policy, with the government acting as a Nanny State, dictating to adults what they can and can not do…but,most citizens,like it or not,abide peacefully by the rule of law.(Source)

New York City  Council Member Robert Jackson, who opposed the bill, said the ban is “going against our liberty of the people of New York City. As someone who wants to breathe clean air, I think we are going too far and being intrusive.”(CNN)

 

New York City Council Member Robert Jackson voted against the ban on smoking to save kids lives...

 

The majority of the people are pleased with the results of the law, and most of us have forgotten what it was like to have to sit in a public restaurant, and have your meal ruined by  someone random smoker’s secondhand smoke, getting all over my food!

I personally think that everything will be okay with then ban is put into action in New York, and after a decade under the law, the citizens will appreciate clean air, even though I personally believe that adult’s should be allowed to ruin their health, if they so choose.(CBS)

This ban, if you need to see it as an affirmation of freedom,protects the right’s of those of us that choose to not smoke death sticks , not to be forced to breathe in a smoker’s foul secondhand air,which has been proven to be as lethal as smoking a cigarette by choice.

I just encourage the government to either make it legal, or illegal.

If it is dangerous behavior, it should simply become illegal to do. Collecting exorbitant taxes on a behavior society deems dangerous to your health, if that is true, seem’s to be a more dangerous precedent for the government to raise money, than the harm done to oneself by smoking a cigarette.

Smoking kills!!!…plain and simple!(Examiner)

…our government seem’s to be waffling here, or, are we choosing to treat smoking as unhealthy dangerous behavior, …but are still willing to accept money  from those addicted to it, and allow the behavior to continue???...this sounds like a reason to me to legalize marijuana!!!

Young Arnold smoking pot...

 

…the victim’s of secondhand smoke are just collateral damage if this behavior is not stopped, or at least, as in the case of New York, highly regulated.(Source)

…What are your thought’s on this?