North Adams Raising Awareness of Smoking Ban
 The North Adams is making sure resident know that smoking is prohibited in parks and other city property. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Residents are getting notice that smoking is no longer welcome at the city's playgrounds and parks — or any other public place.
More than a year after the Board of Health voted to ban smoking in public places, the city has begun posting signs to ensure the word gets out.
"I was reminded by Lynette [Bond] that it was not posted, again and again," said Mayor Richard Alcombright, who gathered with parents and smoking-cessation advocates at the playground at Noel Field Athletic Complex to raise awareness of the ban. "Nicotine is a substance .... It can lead to lifelong habits that are unhealthy."
The city's Department of Public Works, under foreman Paul Markland, has been putting up signs around public areas.
Bond said she and other mothers had become concerned after finding cigarette butts around play areas. She had set her daughter, Ella, down and when she turned around, "she had a cigarette but in her mouth."
Playgrounds should be healthy and safe areas for children, Bond said.
The Board of Health in June 2012 unanimously passed the ban, which went into effect on Jan. 1 of this year. The prohibition covers public areas including City Hall, sports fields, parks and playgrounds, and city events such as the Downtown Celebration. Schools have long banned smoking on their grounds.
Health Director James O'Brien said Bond's experience wasn't isolated. Another parent complained during the Eagle Street Beach Party when "her child was rooting around in the sand like kids will do and found a cigarette butt."
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Those experiences don't speak to a healthy community, he said, and while smoking will likely continue it has to be contained away from others.
"It's not going away but it has to be dealt with," said O'Brien. "We want to be ahead of the curve and doing things to make this a healthy community."
Joan Rubel, coordinator for the Berkshire Tobacco-Free Community Partnership, said secondhand smoke is considered a class 2 carcinogen, the same as asbestos. The federal Centers for Disease Control estimates 3,000 people die each year from secondhand smoke.
"There is no safe level of secondhand smoke," she said.
Preventing adults from smoking around children will also eliminate role-modeling, said Mary Jo Belanger, a family engagement specialist with the Family Resource Center next door at Child Care of the Berkshires.
"We will stop exposing children to secondhand smoke and stop exposing them to witnessing adults engage in this unhealthy behavior," she said. The goal was not to be judgmental, but to offer support for adults seeking to break the cycle of addiction.
Corinne Case, tobacco treatment counselor at North Adams Regional Hospital, said there are resources for smokers to help kick the habit and most insurance plans will help with smoking cessation programs.
For more information on programs offered through NARH, call 413-664-5567. The hospital will also be doing some "stress-free" activities on Nov. 21, the Great American Smokeout. Free support is also available at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669).
Tags: parks & rec, public parks, smoking awareness, smoking regulations,
