Winter Park looks to curb smoking in parks

Winter Park wants the right to decide if parks are smoke-free. On Monday the City Commission passed a resolution calling on the state legislature to allow cities to regulate smoking in parks, which is currently allowed by state law.

Florida Statute 386.209 reserves the right exclusively for the state – a law Winter Park has fought to repeal for the past four years.

But advocating for city control over smoking in parks is mainly a matter of principle, Mayor Ken Bradley said. Winter Park and other Florida cities can control alcohol, pets and events in parks, but the air itself remains a factor decided only in Tallahassee.

“I think it’s been proven that smoking kills in our society,” Bradley said. “It’s taken 30 years to prove that.”

“It’s important to have overall health, but this is a principle issue for me – give cities the right you have given them in almost all other decisions to make this decision ourselves.”

City Commissioners couldn’t deny the potential health hazards resulting from secondhand smoke.

The American Cancer Society reports that secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 deaths each year from heart disease in people who are non-smokers, as well as 3,400 deaths in non-smoking adults from lung cancer.

There are 69 chemicals known to cause cancer in secondhand smoke, according to the National Cancer Institute.

“It’s one of the most destructive forces to people’s lives,” Commissioner Steven Leary said. “Employers can mandate that their employees not smoke, not only in their office but at home … yet we can’t tell people they can’t smoke in parks.”

The Winter Park City Commission made a similar push back in November of 2011. Commissioners passed a resolution requesting the state legislature to “support local home-rule power over municipally-owned property,” while also promoting local awareness of the dangers that come with secondhand smoke.

Winter Park had been pursuing similar legislation since January of that year, passing a similar resolution in February that also urged residents not to smoke where children commonly play.

Neighboring cities have taken a similar approach. Orlando, Maitland and Orange County passed their own resolutions to repeal the state statute in 2011.

Rollins College successfully instituted its own smoking policy in January 2013, limiting smoking to five designated areas across campus for the first time in the college’s 127 years.

Bradley hopes the city itself will one day have the right to control smoking as well.

“I personally don’t smoke and I’m an advocate for non-smoking personally, but I think this Commission or future Commissions should have the right to decide what goes in in their parks,” Bradley said.

“It’s called home rule, and it’s a very good basis of government.”