Pubdate: Mon, 25 Nov 2013
Source: Boston Herald (MA)
Copyright: 2013 The Boston Herald, Inc
Contact:  http://news.bostonherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/53
Note: Prints only very short LTEs.

SMOKING OUT TRUE MOTIVE

The cigarette police used to cloak their campaign to ban smoking in 
the concern for innocent victims of secondhand smoke. But with the 
decision by the city of Boston to ban all smoking in public parks - 
including ecigarettes, which pose no threat to non-smoking bystanders 
- - that facade has really fallen away.

"There is no known safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and 
secondhand smoke exposure in certain outdoor areas has been found to 
pose a significant health risk," the ordinance approved by the Boston 
City Council reads.

But with the ban on the use of electronic cigarettes in public parks 
the council has moved to ban use of a product that produces no 
secondhand smoke. And there is no reliable scientific data to suggest 
that ecigarettes pose a serious threat to the health of those who use 
them - never mind threaten those who happen to be playing on the 
jungle gym 100 feet away.

We are skeptical that an outdoor smoking ban in city parks will 
improve public health dramatically (or at all) but it may well meet 
the approval of city residents. Given the freedom with which people 
feel free to smoke pot on Boston Common and the likelihood that 
access to "medical" marijuana will only make that problem worse, the 
inclusion of marijuana in the ordinance is fine by us. And cigarette 
butts littering the parks is really just gross.

But the inclusion of e-cigarettes in the park smoking ban is telling 
- - a measure of just how empowered this city's leaders feel to overreach.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom