New York Snuffs Out Smoking

The New York City Council voted 36-12 on Wednesday to impose a ban on smoking in the city's 1,700 parks and on its 14 miles of beaches, as well as marinas, boardwalks and pedestrian plazas, such as Times Square.Parks Department officials will be authorized to enforce the law, and may issue fines of $50 per violation. The bill will take effect 90 days after the mayor signs it into law.The legislation marks the biggest expansion of the city's antismoking laws since Mayor Michael Bloomberg convinced the council to approve a ban on smoking in indoor workplaces and park playgrounds in 2003. "No one should have to inhale deadly cigarette smoke when they go to a park or beach," Speaker Christine Quinn said.The new smoking restrictions wouldn't apply to private homes or the sidewalks immediately adjoining parks and public places.Studies have shown that outdoor tobacco smoke levels can be as high as secondhand smoke levels indoors and there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke, Ms. Quinn and officials in the mayor's health department have argued.But opponents of the legislation have accused the mayor and the council of infringing on their rights and have disputed the level of risk associated with secondhand smoke. Audrey Silk, a retired NYPD officer and founder of Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, a smokers' rights group, called the legislation "ridiculous" and "impossible to enforce." She added, ""This will go down in history as a modern-day witch hunt—the entire antismoking crusade."City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. proposed legislation that would carve out areas of parks and beaches where people could smoke. It didn't prevail. He ended up voting for the new law.

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