Smoke-Free Initiatives

for Rehoboth

Beach?

Presentation at Board of Commissioners’ Workshop March 7, 2011

By Commissioner Stan Mills

Concerns in the smoking/anti-smoking debate:• Economic Costs

• Some of the costs are associated with the manpower and resources to pick up litter. Who picks up litter? Employees of … local governments have to pick up litter, as well as volunteers who care about the environment.

• Other costs are incurred when a cigarette butt starts a fire that destroys a forest, a field, or people's homes.

• The costs of "lost revenue" are incurred when tourists will not spend their vacation dollars to visit a beach or park that is full of litter and trash.

http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/smoke-free/overview.html

Concerns in the smoking/anti-smoking debate:• Environmental Costs

• Toxic chemicals in the cigarette filters leak out, threatening the quality of the water and the creatures that live in it.

• Fish, birds, whales, and other marine creatures that mistake them as food, swallowing harmful plastic and toxic chemicals. Ingestion of plastic cigarette filters is a threat to wildlife.

http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/smoke-free/overview.html

Concerns in the smoking/anti-smoking debate:• Litter

COASTAL CLEANUP DELAWARE 2010

Statewide, we had a total of 28,675 cigarette butts and cigar tips.

Numbers of cigarette butts collected by beach areas included:

Rehoboth Beach: 7,093(highest number in the state)

Lewes: 4,295 (second highest number in the state)

Dewey Beach: 2,084 (third highest in the state)

Bethany Beach: 353

South Bethany: 398

Beach state parks had pretty high numbers also.

Concerns in the smoking/anti-smoking debate:• Health

• More than 450,000 people in the United States will die this year from a tobacco related disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, secondhand smoke kills more than 50,000 people in the U.S.

• [Tobacco] also causes serious diseases such as lung cancer, heart disease, and serious respiratory problems in children, including severe asthma attacks and lower respiratory tract infections.

• Eleven major health problems are caused in nonsmokers by environmental tobacco smoke (secondhand smoke) including respiratory disease, lung and nasal sinus cancer and heart disease. (http://www.breath-ala.org/html/out_facts.html)

http://www.earthresource.org/campaigns/smoke-free/overview.html

Smoking By County

DE overall current adult smokers: 17.8%

Currently Smoke Cigarettes: 2008 BRFSS

• New Castle County 15.5%

• Kent County: 21%

• Sussex County: 21.2%

HEALTH ASPECTS

www.lungusa.org

The intent of this presentation is not to conduct a debate on smoking vs. not smoking. People can do their own research.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/index.htmlTobacco Fact sheet N°339February 2011

Second-hand smoke kills• Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces

when people burn tobacco products such as cigarettes, bidis and water pipes. There is no safe level of second-hand tobacco smoke.

• Every person should be able to breathe smoke-free air. Smoke-free laws protect the health of non-smokers, are popular, do not harm business and encourage smokers to quit.

• Only 5.4% of people are protected by comprehensive national smoke-free laws. • In 2008, the number of people protected from second-hand smoke increased by 74% to

362 million from 208 million in 2007.• Of the 100 most populous cities, 22 are smoke free.• Almost half of children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke. • Over 40% of children have at least one smoking parent.• Second-hand smoke causes 600 000 premature deaths per year. • In 2004, children accounted for 28% of the deaths attributable to second-hand smoke.• There are more than 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to

be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer. • In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious cardiovascular and respiratory diseases,

including coronary heart disease and lung cancer. In infants, it causes sudden death. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.

The News Journal, Saturday, March 5, 2011

Trend reversal: Big drop in kids' ear infections –Less smoking may be a factor in 30% decline.By MIKE STOBBE, Associated Press

ATLANTA — Ear infections, a scourge that has left countless tots screaming through the night, have fallen dramatically, and some researchers suggest a decline in smoking by parents might be part of the reason.Health officials report nearly a 30 percent drop over 15 years in young children's doctor visits for ear infections. That's half a million fewer trips to the doctor on average.

But the study by Harvard University suggests another contributor[of ear infections]: cigarette smoke.

(Condensed.)

http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/smokeexposure/

Children and Secondhand Smoke Exposure-Excerpts from The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2007

Rehoboth’s beach at the end of Rehoboth Avenue. (Google Maps July 4, 2010)

Concerns in the smoking/anti-smoking debate:

• Economic Costs• Environmental Costs• Litter• Health

WHAT OTHER TOWNS HAVE SMOKE-FREE INITIATIVES ?

A Review

Designated smoking areas (Belmar, NJ ?)

SMOKING PERMITTED

WITHIN 50 FEET

OF THIS SIGN

Designated smoking area (Avon-by-the-Sea, NJ ?)

Ocean City , Maryland

Smoking on agenda in December 2010.Tabled.Make areas and hope they are used.

PREFERRED

Ocean City, MD is undecided on how to designate preferred smoking areas. Illustration by Stan.

Town of Lewes

No Smokingin Parks Enacted September 14,2009. Heavily advertised to alert the public.

Status – No fines yet.

Town of Bethany BeachSmoking Restrictions Enacted

April 18, 2009

“There have never been any arrests for violations of our Smoking Ordinance. Only some warnings and lots of compliance.”

–Town Manager, Bethany BeachFebruary 3, 2010

Examples:• No smoking within 25 feet of an entrance

or exit

• Smoke-free playgrounds, ballparks, etc.

• Smoke-free parks

• Smoke-free beaches

• Smoke-free campuses

• No candy cigarettes to be sold in your community

•Pay for seasonal officers to educate the public.

[of grant projects]

Path forward

Table discussion of implementing smoking restrictions on the beach and boardwalk. Resume after summer to allow for additional study.

No consensus.

Unanswered questions on impacts to tourism.

Path forward

Table discussion of implementing smoking restrictions on the beach and boardwalk. Resume after summer to allow for additional study.

Seek to establish specific public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones.

Path forward- Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

Park/TotLot/Recreation Area at Grove Park

Path forward - Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

Tot Lot at Lake Gerar-Lake Avenue-Henlopen Hotel

Tot Lot at Lake Gerar-Lake Avenue-Henlopen Hotel

Path forward - Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

Park/Swings at western tip of Lake Gerar (opposite Bad Hair Day?)

Path forward - Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

Park/Swings at western tip of Lake Gerar (opposite Bad Hair Day?)

Park/Swings at western tip of Lake Gerar (opposite Bad Hair Day?)

Path forward - Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

Tot Lot/Park at Silver Lake-Stockley Street-Country Club Estates

Tot Lot/Park at Silver Lake-Stockley Street-Country Club Estates

Tot Lot/Park at Silver Lake-Stockley Street-Country Club Estates

Path forward

Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

• Tot Lot at Lake Gerar-Lake Avenue-Henlopen Hotel

• Tot Lot/Park at Silver Lake-Stockley Street-Country Club Estates

• Park/Swings at western tip of Lake Gerar (opposite Bad Hair Day?)

• Park/Tot Lot/Recreation Area at Grove Park

Ordinance/Enforcement.

Model after other towns.

Impose conditions before fines can be levied, such as having appropriate signage in place alongside disposal urns.

Set fine structure.

Path forward

Seek to establish the following public parks and/or children’s playgrounds as smoke-free zones:

• Tot Lot at Lake Gerar-Lake Avenue-Henlopen Hotel

• Tot Lot/Park at Silver Lake-Stockley Street-Country Club Estates

• Park/Swings at western tip of Lake Gerar (opposite Bad Hair Day?)

• Park/Tot Lot/Recreation Area at Grove Park

Draft legislation on April Workshop Agenda

QUESTIONS?

Presentation at Board of Commissioners’ Workshop March 7, 2011

By Commissioner Stan Mills