Proposal would ban smoking on Scarborough beaches – Keep Me Current: News
SCARBOROUGH – despite concerns over how it would be enforced,the Scarborough Town Council last week moved forward with anordinance that would ban the use of tobacco products at townbeaches.
The council voted 4 to 1, with Ron Ahlquist dissenting, to placethe proposed ordinance before a March 16 public hearing. CouncilorsCarol Rancourt and Karen D’Andrea were absent from themeeting.
As proposed, the ordinance would ban the use of tobacco on townbeaches, except in designated areas, as well as on public propertywithin 25 feet of a public beach.
While a couple of residents spoke in favor of the proposed ban,citing health benefits, some councilors, including Chairwoman JudyRoy, worried about whether the ordinance would be effective instopping smoking.
“In my opinion,” she said last week prior to the meeting, “it isgoing to be another ordinance that will be hard toenforce.”
Councilor Richard Sullivan said he understands the thought behindbanning smoking, but questioned why using other tobacco products atthe beach was included.
“I am a little curious about how this came to be,” he said of theordinance including all tobacco products. “I reckon a lot of peoplewill look at this ordinance as regulating behavior.”
Ahlquist, a park ranger at Crescent Beach State Park, where smokingwas recently banned, said he, too, is concerned about theenforcement of the ordinance.
“I support this ordinance,” he said. “I reckon it is a good idea,but my concern is how do you enforce it.”
He said a smoking ban can more easily be enforced at state parksbecause the state has staff to monitor the park, something thepublic beaches in Scarborough can’t afford.
“We still have people trying to smoke (in the state parks) and getaway with it,” he said. “I am real hesitant passing something wecan’t enforce.”
Councilors brought up several ways that the ordinance could beenforced, including by volunteers, the Volunteers In Policing groupor the police department, although Ahlquist said he doesn’t wantthe police department to get inundated with phone calls.
Sometimes peer pressure, D’Andrea noted in an interview prior tothe meeting, is all that is needed to enforce such an ordinance.Education, Ahlquist said, also goes a long way toward gettingpeople to abide by the ordinance.
Ahlquist tried unsuccessfully to amend the order to delay thepublic hearing and return the ordinance to the Ordinance Committeeso the group could address the enforceability concerns.
Councilor Jessica Holbrook, who joined Ahlquist in voting to returnthe idea to the Ordinance Committee, argued that the council wouldperhaps be better passing the ban as a non-binding resolutionrather than an ordinance.
Two councilors, D’Andrea and Mike Wood, said they favored givingthe ordinance an opportunity to work.
“I am very supportive of this,” D’Andrea said early last week,prior to the meeting. “I reckon it is a wonderful idea.”
Two Scarborough mothers who spoke at the meeting also applauded theidea.
“I am supportive of banning smoking on the beach,” said StephaniePerry. “As we know we are very fortunate to have access to suchbeautiful beaches.”
Her support for the measure, however, was not just about preservingthe beauty of the beaches.
“I have a son who is asthmatic and it is detrimental if he is bysecondhand smoke,” said Perry. “I am hoping you are consideringthis as a way of making this a safer environment for the childrenof Scarborough.”
Tina Pettingill, a Scarborough resident and executive director ofthe Maine Public Health Association, said any amount of secondhandsmoke is perilous to people, especially those with chronicbreathing and heart issues.
Pettingill, who came to the meeting with her daughters Grace andAvery, said the notion that the impact of secondhand smoke is notas severe outdoors as it is indoors is faulty.
“We have good data that shows outdoor exposure, depending where theperson is compared to the smoker, those levels can be as dangerousas the levels of being indoors,” she said.
The idea for the ordinance came from Black Point Road residentSharman Kivatisky, who at a council meeting last Septembersuggested the town follow the state’s lead and ban smoking atbeaches.
She told councilors at the time cigarettes are not only a healthconcern for people, but for animals and the environment, aswell.
“People tend to throw their (cigarette) butts right in the sand,”she said. “They are not biodegradable and are a hazard to thewildlife.”
According to Peter Slovinsky, a member of the Northern new EnglandChapter of Surfriders International, which has organized beachcleanups all over southern Maine in recent years, cigarette buttsare the No. 1 piece of litter found at beaches.
In fact, during a one-hour cleanup of Pine Point Beach during MaineCoast Week last summer, Slovinsky and his team of volunteers pickedup around 1,000 cigarette butts.
Proposal would ban smoking on Scarborough beaches – Keep Me Current: News