Southwest Cobb Commissioner Woody Thompson said he noticed that WellStar Cobb Hospital had signs banning tobacco use on its campus when he went there for treatment last year.
“I thought it made a lot of sense,” Thompson said. “I think it’s a matter of public health.”
Thompson has proposed adopting the policy at the county’s 77 parks, as well as outside its buildings. Smoking is already banned inside county buildings.
The county’s parks department is surveying 60 to 70 groups that use the parks, including sports organizations and groups that sponsor arts-related events, to see if they would support the proposed policy, said Eddie Canon, Cobb’s parks, recreation and cultural affairs director.
Canon said the survey information should be collected by the end of the month, after which the department will review the findings with Thompson.
The county wouldn’t spend much money policing smoking in parks, instead it’s educating user groups and asking them to deal with people who don’t follow the law, Canon said.
Not everyone supports the idea. Wynn McCurdy, a board member with the Mountain View Arts Alliance, which puts on performances and other projects with the county’s Art Place, doesn’t have a problem with smokers.
“I’ve never had a problem at one of our outdoor concerts,” said McCurdy, a non-smoker. “I’ve found that, if somebody is smoking a cigar and I don’t care for it, we just ask them to go somewhere they are not in the crowd. I have found that smokers have become much more considerate.”
McCurdy said the potential smoking ban is another example of government intrusion into people’s daily lives.
“I think it’s time for them to stop taking people’s freedom,” she said.
A number of cities, including Marietta and Kennesaw, have banned smoking in their parks, Canon said.
“Folks around the metro area are chiming in on this,” he said.
Thompson sees the proposal as a way to improve the county at little expense.
“I wanted to put something in there as a trial balloon,” he said. “All it would cost us is a little PR and some signs.”
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Just take a picture of a nucular power plant with your CELL PHONE about 1 & 1/2 mile away from it and see what happens to your cell phone & picture,then tell me about how bad my cigarette smoke is.
There are SO Many Other things that will kill you before my second hand smoke does,Alot of Doctors ETC. are to quick to blame it on my second hand smoke.
There, I have voiced my comment. Thank-You very much and have a good day.
Smokers are the worst citizens with all the secondhand smoke and billions of butts they throw everywhere. The world is their ashtray.
If I don't like the smell from someone be it from cigarettes, perfume, body odor or whatever, I walk away. I don't need the government to make laws for decisions I can make myself. What's next, laws on how much junk food you can consume?
It is just "feel good" legislation and another Big Brother telling you what you can and can't do..Enough, get off our backs.
I am old enough to remember smoking in restaurants then there were different sections for smokers..now everyone os "OFFENDED" by smoke. I am offended by stupid people can we pass a law against them? Oh wait if we did we wouldn't have aby Commissioners
Of course, the Mableton Improvement Coalition is over there with their cheerleader skirts on over this jumping up and down
it's an issue that either you laugh or cry about.
tobacco is a controled substance. why not ban the sale?
Crime will go through the roof!
"...all those annoyances aren't proven to cause physical harm to others" Neither is second-hand smoke, genius. Do some research beyond the anti-smoking establishment, or are you afraid of what you might find?
Public health is not a concern of Thompson or any of the other democrat/rino busy bodies. What the nimrods of the nanny state don't realize is that they will eventually push so hard that people will quit smoking...and the mega tax stream from the sales of those nasty sticks will dry up.
My only problem with smokers is their nasty habit of throwing those nasty little butts that their nasty lips have been sucking on, on the ground and out their car windows. I would LOVE to to see the cops do a campaign to enforce the no littering laws violated by the vast majority of smokers.