By Charley Falkenburg, Special to the Packet
MONTGOMERY Smokers may soon be forced to leave their cigarettes behind if they want use any of the town’s public parks.
At the request of local, county and state health officials, the Township Committee is considering creating an ordinance that would ban smoking in all township-owned recreation areas.
With all county operated parks now smoke-free, including Skillman Park, health officials thought the township might want to follow suit to create consistency and foster a healthier community.
”We want to present this opportunity to the township to show leadership and set a good role model for our kids in the community to choose healthy lifestyles,” said Stephanie Carey, the director of the Board of Health.
Currently, smoking is banned only in certain areas such as school and municipal grounds.
If adopted, the committee would be able to tailor the ordinance to meet the township’s needs. It could be as strict as to bar smoking in all parks, sports fields and other public recreation grounds.
The township could also follow Raritan, Somerville and Manville and enact a partial ordinance that could ban smoking only under certain circumstances such as during sporting events when children are present.
The suggestion had come up just days ago at a Board of Health meeting. Lucille Talbot, coordinator of the Somerset County Cancer Coalition, and Donna Drummond, director of Tobacco Free for a Healthy New Jersey Coalition, made a visit in hopes of convincing local health officials of the need for a smoke-free ordinance in their community.
They both made an appearance before the Township Committee on Jan. 17 to do the same.
Ms. Drummond listed several reasons to create a smoke-free ordinance, from tobacco being the leading cause of death in the state and nation to the toxicity of non-biodegradable cigarette butts lying around, which could be picked up by animals and children.
However, it was the pursuit of reformed social norms that drove their ambition to increase the number of municipalities with smoke-free ordinances.
”We’d love to change the norm away from children seeing adults smoke in public,” said Ms. Drummond. “If kids are at a soccer or basketball game, it would be nice if we don’t have a lot of adults modeling smoking for kids we really want to normalize that.”
Out of 566 municipalities in the state, Ms. Drummond said more than 160 smoke-free ordinances have passed in places such as Passaic, Paterson, Atlantic City and Haledon. If Montgomery joins in, it would be the third township in Somerset County to ban smoking in its parks and/or recreation areas. The other two are Far Hills and Warren.
The committee agreed smoking and second-hand smoke was harmful, but some members were concerned such a broad ordinance would infringe on the rights of taxpayers who smoke.
”Smokers are residents of the town, they pay taxes and these public parks are for their benefit as well,” said Deputy Mayor Patricia Graham. “If you’re taking away something from these taxpayers, I think you ought to have a good justification for it.”
Committeeman Christopher Sugden echoed Ms. Graham, adding that putting up signs that asked people to refrain from smoking in these areas would be an effective form of discouragement without the need to create an ordinance.
Committeeman Rich Smith emerged as the ordinance’s main supporter.
”As someone who likes to walk the paths in Montgomery, there’s nothing worse than seeing cigarette butts lying around,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s their [taxpayers] right to be able to smoke anywhere they want I think we can enforce that.”
Committeewoman Christine Madrid was skeptical of how to effectively enforce such an ordinance, but Ms. Drummond said after surveying 15 municipalities in Monmouth County with an ordinance in place, they found not one police department issued a single summons. However, she reiterated that a smoke-free ordinance wasn’t about catching someone smoking.
”It’s to raise a generation of young nonsmokers who won’t have all these health problems over the coming years,” she said.
On behalf of the Board of Health, Ms. Carey said there is a willingness to explore the partial smoke-free ordinance that target only in areas children tend to congregate such as concession stands, sports fields, playgrounds and dog parks. If it is well-received, the ordinance could always be expanded later on down the road.That idea didn’t appear to sit well with Mr. Smith.
”I’m not so sure the phase-in approach really accomplishes anything,” he added. “Let’s just do this or not.”
Ms. Graham pointed out there is no statistical evidence that smoking is a problem in Montgomery, particularly in the parks.
”It’s not like there are people out there, smoking like a chimney walking through the park,” she added. “The main concerns for me are the playgrounds and kids.”
Gail Ernst, an employee of Tobacco Control within the state Department of Health, was there that evening as a concerned resident. According to Ms. Ernst, only 9.8 percent of people smoke in Somerset County the lowest in New Jersey.
”If you’re talking about rights, certainly you should not ignore 90 percent of the population,” she told the committee. “I would like to see a leadership stance and I would be really proud if we joined Somerset County in giving a message to people in our town that we want to provide a healthy place.”
Mayor Ed Trzaska said the issue would continue to be discussed.
”When it comes to an ordinance like this, more discussion, more time and more thought is definitely better,” he said.
