San Francisco Bans Open-Air Smoking [Say Anything]

Well, they haven't exactly banned all outside smoking, but that's pretty much got to be the next step.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Legislators in San Francisco city voted to ban smoking in public parks on Tuesday, becoming the first major American city to embrace such an expansive ban on tobacco use.

"This is the first one that includes all the parks and recreational centers in a county," said Michela Alioto-Pier, a city legislator who sponsored the proposed ban. It needs the approval of Mayor Gavin Newsom to become law.

Several smaller California cities have already prohibited smoking in city parks, including Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, as well as the central Californian city of Fresno. A few cities outside California have limited smoking bans in local parks.

The legislator behind the law manages to hit the smoking-nazi trifecta when defending her ban.

"It is a danger to our small children and not a particularly good example for them either," Alioto-Pier said in an interview. Parks are "an area unfortunately where there is a lot of litter and cigarette butts make up four times as much litter as any thing else out there. It is a detriment to the environment. It takes 10-12 years for a cigarette butt to biodegrade, and the toxins go into the ground water."

Its for the kids, the environment and...the ground water. Gotcha.

Honestly, I didn't think there were any smokers left in San Francisco. How can there be? Pretty soon they're going to be organizing the smokers into walled-off smoking "ghettos." If I were a smoker I would have moved a long time ago.

And really, why don't they just making smoking illegal and get it over with? Its pretty clear that's where they're headed anyway.

[Cross-posted at Say Anything]

posted by Ace at 10:23 AM

| Access Comments